The Berserker War
by Jesse93140
Summary: It's been less than a month since my rider became chief of Berk, and he's already worried about word of a Berserker military buildup on Berserker Island. Of course, could I speak Hiccup's language, I would have told him that it was not an island at all…I do not own How to Train your Dragon, or any of its characters. Rated T because paranoia.
1. Chapter 1, The horizon of war

"Slow down, bud," Hiccup called down. "We only want to get there by nightfall!" He had a point. I would be harder to detect at night. Some would laugh at me for not thinking of this myself, and they'd be right. But I was getting hungry, and I was actually hunting down a school of fish to stun for lunch. _Oh well,_ I thought, _lunch can wait_.

A few hours later, the sun was setting, and this meant the sun was directly behind us; Berserker Island is east of Berk. It also meant we would be undetectable. After all, who with common sense would stare at the sun?

"Holy Odin…"Hiccup trailed off. With my eyesight, just short of the horizon, I could see the Berserker village, ridiculously fortified, and the fleet was iron-plated on the sides of the hull, a massive conglomeration of longboats at least a league long. All had specifically anti-dragon (or anti-building, whichever you aimed it at) weaponry on board. That fleet would be tough to take down, except maybe in bad weather. I looked far to the east, and watched the multiple Berserker villages on the mainland. Well, I say mainland…Berserker "Island" is really what you would call a peninsula, but it is such a long, low and thin one that from almost any angle, it looks like an island. What worried me about the villages is that they were all billowing out smoke as though they were on fire. I had no idea what they were doing, and I didn't think it was safe to get closer, not with that fleet. Fortunately, Hiccup didn't force me to get closer. He just added an extension to his scope and looked. "They look like giant forges. I think our reports were accurate. We need to get back and prepare. At least, at the peace treaty conference, we can _play_ dumb, instead of _being_ dumb." _That_ was a typically Hiccup thing to say. But he spurred me back towards Berk, and I suddenly was cursing the sun that had kept us safe over Berserker Island (which isn't really an island).

We returned to Berk at around an hour or so into the new day. Astrid…well, let's just say she wasn't very happy…

"_HICCUP!"_

"Uh oh…" Hiccup mumbled… "Looks like Astrid's on the warpath…" _I wonder why…_I thought sarcastically. Then I rolled my eyes at him. Then I grabbed the scruff of his neck with my mouth and deposited him in front of Astrid. And jeez, was Astrid _furious_…

_"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING OUT THERE? DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO BE BACK BEFORE NIGHTFALL? HUH?"_ I covered my ears. I was deaf enough for one night. But Astrid wasn't having any of that. _"TOOTHLESS! I TOLD YOU TO GET HICCUP BACK HERE BY-"_

"Uh, Astrid?"

_"-NIGHTTIME! WHAT?!"_

"I think we should talk seriously about what we found out there." I warbled in pain from my ears. _Humans, _I thought. _Completely unable to just talk without deafening absolutely everyone._ I grumbled off and went to sleep outside Ruff and Tuff's house. At least it was quieter there…

* * *

The next morning, I woke up to find that Hiccup was preparing the island for war. I homed in on the sound of his voice.

"-and make sure that it's unloaded safely!" I came up behind him. I stayed there for a good five minutes or so without him noticing. Then I chortled. _Loudly._

"_AAGH!"_ _Well, my ears are gone again._ "Why did you do that? Can't you see I'm trying to get an island ready for war?" I rubbed my ear and nodded. Then I looked out to the east, and pretended to shoot at something. I've learned to communicate with Hiccup over the years this way, and I'm getting pretty good at it, if I do say so myself. "You want to hurt them first, huh?" I nodded, then gestured with my head to the dragon nest and pretended to fire again, hoping he would understand that I could get all the other dragons to strike. "With all the dragons?" I nodded again. "I know you want to surprise them, but politically, it isn't that simple. If we attack first, that would make a sure war." I nodded. Hiccup didn't want to provoke Dagur, the chief of the Berserkers, at least, not until they were as ready as possible. Then, Astrid _just happened_ to saunter over. Hiccup flinched.

"Don't worry Hiccup, I'm not going to give you another earful about last night." Hiccup started to sigh with relief, but I beat him to it by a long shot. "Well, gee, thanks, Toothless! Ugh, dragons...so rude..." I snorted and rolled my eyes. "So the Berserkers want Berk?"

"Yep."

"And what are we going to do about that?" Hiccup unfolded his – now mostly completed – map of the Archipelago. He drew the Berserker fleet on the map. But before he could draw anything else, I gestured to myself and snatched his pencil, drawing a line to show that I wanted to get behind them.

"Toothless, should war be declared, will come around and outflank the fleet," he said as he tried to interpret my drawing. I added clouds near the Berserker fleet and pointed there, then out to the storm front moving in. "He…wants to hide the dragons in a cloud…?" I nodded again. "Well, he should hide them there anyway, since we don't want them to know that we've got all these dragons. But when war is declared, he will trap the fleet. But he won't have enough dragons to get them all, so Dagur's fleet will – albeit with heavy losses – likely escape. Then, he is likely to come around on a mainland that stretches out there, just beyond the horizon. Then-"

"Wait a minute," Astrid interjected. "Berserker is an island."

"Wrong. It's a peninsula."

"Great."

"Yes. The Berserker tribe is an empire, not an island. They have a lot of resources. So if war happens, we need to cut off production before anything else, so all that is useless to them."

"Sar!" A Viking called. "Dagur's fleet is approchin'! You should gi' ready!"

"Alright, I'll be at the docks in a few minutes. Toothless?" He locked my tail. "Get all the dragons off the island. Now. If war is declared, you'll hear the foghorn." I nodded. "Good luck!" I took off, and climbed high enough so all the dragons could hear me.

_"ALL DRAGONS! FOLLOW ME, NOW!"_ A veritable squadron of dragons took flight, and followed me into a cloud that I had planned to use for concealment. I felt as though a long wait was ahead, and an even longer war looming past the horizon. Earth, Sea and Sky truly _were_ about to clash...

* * *

_A/N: So, my first chapter of my first story! Please give constructive feedback, and tell me if I got any characters (personalities in particular) wrong. For those who don't know, a league is roughly five and a half kilometres. If Toothless is the one talking, it will be italicized regardless of whether he is yelling or not. Also, the POV will be stated at the beginning of each chapter (Mostly, it will be Toothless' POV). Finally, if I spell something in a special way, like "sar" or "sir", it is to emulate the accent of the speaker._


	2. AN about Toothless

A/N: Before the next part of the story, I need to explain a few things about Toothless' different styles of fire. There is the one we've seen in the movies, or, as Toothless (if he could speak) would call it, the Plasma Blast.

There is an anti-armor (for use against targets like the Berserker fleet's armor) type of fire that works in much the same way as a hollow charge (if you don't know what a hollow charge is, it's a jet of molten material, in this case, quartz, that melts armor plating). Toothless calls this a Plasma Bolt.

And there is the one where Toothless just spews plasma in a vaguely conical shape, much like the shot of a shotgun in the way it expands. Everything it hits will catch fire, and it is a very deadly form of fire at close range. Toothless would call it the "shotgun."

In the future, when I say Toothless blasts something, I mean a plasma blast, when I say he bolts something, I mean a plasma bolt, and when I say he shotguns something, I mean he shotguns it.


	3. Chapter 2, A one-sided battle

_3__rd__ person POV_

Dagur's flagship came up to the dock.

"Well, hello, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, Chief of Berk." He unsheathed his sword.

"Peace, Dagur. We are here for a peace treaty, not for a declaration of war. Shall I take you on the customary tour?" Hiccup's eyes were steely, and Dagur noticed Hiccup's confidence.

"Yes, I think so. Where to first?" He gestured expansively. "Not to say as if there's much to see."

"If you say so, Dagur. If you say so." Hiccup waved his hands dismissively. " I think we should start off with the monument to Stoick the Vast. Or had you other ideas?" Hiccup was much more of a leader than he let on, and the tone of his voice supported this.

"Oh. Yes. Sorry for your loss, Chief Hiccup." He looked slightly nervous. "Though, what are all those contraptions lying about full of fish for? Unless, as I suspect, they are for _DRAGONS?"_ His sword point was at Hiccup's throat.

"Dagur, look at me. Do you honestly think _I_, of all people, would be able to tame _dragons?_" Hiccup signaled behind his back for the village to laugh. Of course, it worked and the village exploded with laughter. "If I tried, I'd be dead! Well, according to you, dead-_er_." If there was anything Hiccup ever learned about dealing with his dad about things he had done in the past, it was how to act innocent.

"Fair point. But, pray tell, what are these for then, if not for dragons?"

"This is where we lay our fish to dry, for all us _humans_, who, as you may or may not know, do actually need to eat once in a while." He may have over calculated on the sarcasm there, but Dagur either was to dumb to get the hint, or he just didn't care, or…

"So, why are you lying to me, Hiccup?" Dagur raised his sword.

Hiccup looked genuinely insulted. "How dare you accuse me of lying?! If anyone's lying, it's you!" Hiccup realized inside that he may have said a bit too much.

"And why would I be the one to lie, Hiccup, Dragon-tamer?" Hiccup had had enough of Dagur's pompous nature.

"You _started_ the list of lies when you allied with the Outcasts, then later claimed not to be. Remember? For your Skrill?" Dagur was a bit uncomfortable. "Then, you try to zap me with it. No, I didn't forget. _THEN_, on _MY ISLAND_! You _DARE _accuse me of lying, you idol of idiot-worshippers!" Hiccup had recently acquired some English poetry, and was utilizing all the vocabulary in it to the best of his ability. used the fact that he was taller than Dagur to look down on him angrily.

"You dare call me an idol-of-whatever you said?!" Dagur leveled his sword at Hiccup.

"Don't even try; if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt."

"How dare you! I, Dagur the Deranged, hereby declare war on the Isle of Berk, since you also lie: You pretend that there are no dragons. If that were true, why is a Hideous Zippleback sleeping in front of the Mead Hall?" Hiccup whipped around. Dagur took this as an opportunity to stab Hiccup in the back. Unfortunately, Hiccup's armor was too well-designed for that to work. Hiccup slowly turned around. Hiccup said, "You are the best of the cut-throats. I'd beat you now, but I would infect my hands." Hiccup signaled the foghorn, which roared into the bay, and turned to Dagur.

"I will destroy Berk!" Dagur yelled.

"Maybe," Hiccup retorted, "But not with that armada you won't."

"What? What do you-" Suddenly, the rear guard warship group exploded so violently that pieces of the ship landed at Dagur's feet.

"I'd get out of here if I were you. At least, while there are still ships to leave with." Hiccup smirked as Toothless' _airborne_ armada ripped Dagur's fleet to bits. Dagur didn't even retort. He sprinted for his flagship, but just as he got within a few metres of it, Toothless landed directly in front of him. His markings glowed with menace. He pretended to be out of fire, and that's when Dagur lunged. But Toothless slapped Dagur across the face with his tail, right into the flagship. He then shotgunned Dagur's sail, setting it on fire. Dagur's men pushed off in the flagship using paddles instead. It was a very poor beginning to the war for Dagur's Berserkers.

* * *

After they were underway, the remnants of the Berserker fleet hit a storm, and lost even more ships. The numbers for the Berserker catastrophe were:

The Berserkers came to Berk with 253 ships.

The dragons took out 129 of them.

The storm finished off another 15.

On average, the amount of crew lost aboard each warship was in the vicinity of 1/3 of each crew of 40. With 144 ships lost in total, the amount of soldiers lost was in the vicinity of 1920 lost. Around half of them managed to swim to Berk and get captured.

The Berserkers therefore have 109 ships in floating condition, and have around 8200 soldiers left. Of the ships that are still floating, only 6 of them are still in good condition. That's 103 ships to fix as well as 144 to build, and another 1920 men to recruit. Dagur really should have planned that one a bit better.

* * *

"Hiccup?" Astrid called.

" 'e up them steps, laddie. I really think you should talk to 'im." Gobber gestured upstairs. He was there because Gobber was a good man, and he assumed – correctly – that Hiccup would be pretty shaken up from his confrontation.

Astrid opened the door. Hiccup was sitting on the bed. "I probably could have handled that one a bit better." Hiccup looked up.

"Actually, I never knew that you could write someone off so effectively just by using words. That was _epic_." She sat down beside him. "It was a matter of time, and you know it. Besides, he's already losing, and he declared war today." She started to braid his hair, as she often did when she was trying to reassure him.

"That's the thing, Astrid. I don't want people to have to die because of that madman." He looked down again.

"That's war, Hiccup. I hate to say it, but a lot of people are likely to die if this war doesn't end fast. And they won't all be Berserkers."

"I know. That's why I intend for the dragons to do the fighting. A mass of them is more powerful than anything the Berserkers could ever wield. Minimal losses on the dragon side. The quickest route to victory."

"The dragons include Toothless, and by extension, you."  
"Exactly. I, as chief, have to lead in battle. It's the rule number three from Dad." Hiccup sighed. "Their next attack will probably be on land, and they'll build rafts." Just then, Toothless limped in. His flank was cut in at least four places, and he was bleeding. "Whoa, bud! What happened?" A series of incomprehensible warbles and grunts followed. "Right. Well, I'll get a clean cloth to clean that up." So he got a cloth, and wiped away the blood. The cuts weren't that deep, but they were very long. "That'll heal on its own. Don't worry." Toothless so badly wanted to say something, but, well, that just isn't going to happen, now, is it?

That night, Hiccup held a meeting at the Mead Hall, saying exactly what was going to happen.

"We, riding dragons, are going to use all the advantages we can get. We're outnumbered and we can't afford to lose anyone. They have multiple villages. We can skirt around the frontier village and attack from behind. That will happen later, once the Berserker fleet gets back to the village. We can get more of them that way." Hiccup didn't want to kill anyone, but he knew that it really _was_ either them or Berk.

* * *

_A/N "You idol of idiot-worshippers!" is actually a quote from Macbeth, a work from the one and only William Shakespeare. It is safe to assume that the English poetry that Hiccup was reading came from Shakespeare. "If you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt." is from The Two gentlemen of Verona. "You are the best of the cut-throats" is also from Macbeth, and "I'd beat you now, but I would infect my hands." Is from Timon of Athens._

_Please R&amp;R with constructive criticism!_


	4. Chapter 3, Night Furies don't Cry

_A/N: Thank you to lorde for the positive review. Yes, I plan to add Hiccstrid in the next few chapters. Also, the POV will be jumping around a lot (probably) so please make sure to check which POV it's from at the start of each chapter._

* * *

_**Toothless POV**_

I wanted to tell Hiccup about the weapons that had shot at me on the Berserker warships, but it would be hard, if not downright impossible to communicate it to him. We did manage to inflict a massive blow on the Berserker fleet, though. We lost no dragons whatsoever, because they were completely unaware of us until their rear guard exploded, courtesy of yours truly. Anyway, it was the first morning of the war…

"Toothless! Our scouts on the land route are saying that the Berserkers are massing on the mainland. We should certainly meet to engage, shouldn't we?" I lifted up my head. "It's a twenty-minute flight. We can catch some lunch on the way." Hiccup's strike on the Berserker village would have to be put on the backburner. I got up, and sidled up beside him. He got on, and we began our flight to the front lines. As promised, I caught a few cod on the way.

"I wonder how badly we can hurt them this time, Toothless." He patted my neck. _You mean, how badly _I_ can hurt them_…I warbled in response. I just made sounds when Hiccup was talking to me. Let him think I was talking back to him; I just wanted him to know I'm listening. Why bother talking if he can't understand me? He didn't have time to say anything else:

We had finally reached the frontlines.

Hiccup came over to Commodore Sven, his ground commander. "What have we got?" He asked in a very Stoick-like way.

"They have around five thousand men. We have around twenty-nine hundred. They also have these big metal…_things_ that seem totally impervious to the dragons that have been trying to destroy them, and they have _big_ tubes sticking out the front that when they shoot, the boom is comparable to a Gronckle blast."

"Toothless can take care of those, right Bud?" He looked at me over his shoulder. I snorted and nodded. _Well jeez, just give me all the tough jobs_, I grumbled. I let Hiccup lock my tail in place so I could fly. "We'll coordinate to attack when your first strike hits; that way, we can take advantage of the confusion caused by a Night Fury attack in broad daylight. The hope here is that they'll be too confused to take advantage of the fact that they can see you, and their catapults will be pointed in all sorts of directions, with none of them actually putting down effective fire on anyone." I nodded. I would have to make my first shot count. I reminded myself: _Make sure to target what could hurt the land forces. They are what will probably keep you alive. Don't forget: You're alone. The other dragons are waiting behind, in case we need a second line of defense. Most importantly, remember to hide in the clouds after each shot, unless they aren't targeting you._ And with that, I nodded to Hiccup, and took off. As I flew, I heard Hiccup yell, "When the Berserker camp starts to explode, attack!" I made a mental note to watch out to not hit Berk's soldiers. It would be tough. My explosions can be pretty big.

A few minutes later, I was overflying the Berserker camp. Despite the dragon attack on the fleet just the day before, no one had the sense to look up. I saw two giant, monstrous metal beasts sitting near the front, seeming almost completely inactive. It must have been what Commodore Sven was describing, entirely metal with a tube sticking out the front that burst into flame once in a while, and an explosion soon fell near the Berk camp. I decided to go for the closer one. I made sure to regulate my dive, so as to minimize the screaming sound that I so often generated in a dive. About three hundred feet away, I unleashed my plasma blast. As I overflew it, I noticed that it had practically no effect on the target. _The metal must be too thick for my blasts_, I thought as I raced into the clouds. So when I dived the second time, I made no effort to hide my descent. The more scared they were, the better.

This time, I fired off a plasma bolt, which I had recently discovered melted metal armor. I found this out after eating some quartz and then shooting something. I burned a hole right through a massive boulder. So I loaded up on quartz in case I needed to shoot something armored. Today, that preparation paid off, as the vehicle exploded into millions of pieces. That would bombard the Berkians no more. I lined up the second one without even bothering to dive again. I flew at head-height and bolted the second one as well. It did not explode immediately, but it did catch fire. Then it exploded as well. I looked over to my right and observed the Vikings charging for the Berserker front lines. I watched these large tubes sitting in an open field fire and observed explosions raining down upon the Berkian advance. But unlike the _things_ I had just destroyed, these were not armored and I dove on them. Some fired upwards at me, but couldn't hit me. I blasted them to pieces before circling around and lining up the tents.

Suddenly a sour taste grew in my mouth as I realized I was probably about to kill a fair number of people. I bit my tongue to snap out of it. _"This is war,"_ I reminded myself aloud. _"There will always be casualties, no matter what." _Then I let the blast fly. I shuddered as I pulled out of my dive and overflew the explosion. A scream filled the air, but I wasn't sure if it was the sound I made at high speed or the people in the camp…The sound has never left me. Despite my nature as a dragon, I'm not a cold-blooded killer (even if I am indeed cold-blooded: I'm a reptile).

I saw as some more guns (I'm going to call those tubes "guns" from now on) started to shoot at me. But something was different. The pieces of metal that they were shooting were exploding near me. I flew right through one of the explosions. It's a good thing I kept my eyes closed. Bits of shrapnel glanced off my scales for the most part, but a few left long cuts down my flank. My flying, however, did allow me to keep on target and destroy the weapons that had fired at me. My blast flew true, and detonated in the middle of the group. I must have hit their storage for these shells full of explosive, because the explosion was truly leviathan. I dodged out of the way of the explosion to avoid getting hit by more shrapnel, then flew up and back towards the Berkian camp.

I was feeling a mix of emotion: I felt proud that I had helped win the battle, but also ashamed that I had turned on one of my basic principles: never to kill. I never wanted to do anything like that kind of attack ever again. As much as I am the most powerful and intelligent dragon of all time, with intelligence comes what Hiccup would call humanity. I didn't want to kill them the same way Hiccup didn't want to kill dragons. The difference was, I had to, or else my friends would die. I alighted behind Hiccup. He looked at my face. Hiccup had seen that look before, the look of being torn inside. He took me aside.

"I know how you feel, Toothless. I really do. And I don't really know how to make you feel any less guilt. But, as much as I, of all people, hate to say it; it really was either them or us. As hard as it is, try to look on the bright side of things: Because of what you did, _we're_ all still here. And because of you, Dagur's armies are losing the will to fight. Then, they'll surrender without fighting, and the killing will be over." I gave Hiccup a pleading _never again_ look. He nodded and sat down beside me, noticing the cut. "I know, bud. Believe me, I know." He looked down at his lap. I had stinging tears in my eyes, that dripped onto Hiccup.

Night Furies don't cry. That's what the revised Book of Dragons said. It would have to be revised again.

* * *

_A/N: A somewhat violent chapter. Due to the last few para's, I may have to change the genre to angst. Anyway, the first real fight between Berk and the Berserkers. This chapter was written with WWII in mind. The things that Toothless bolted were tanks, and the tubes were artillery pieces and AAA guns. In future chapters, tanks will be called armored guns, artillery will be just guns, and AAA will be called Anti-Dragon guns. More on how the Berserkers got those will be revealed later. As usual, please R&amp;R!_


	5. AN Housekeeping

A/N: I will probably not be actually writing any new chapters during the week, because I am very busy during the week, but I will be planning chapters and deciding what events will occur and when so that I can just write them on the weekend. Also, I really appreciate any constructive feedback about the story. The only things I moderate for reviews are blatant flaming and typos. So please R&amp;R!

This story was partly inspired by Cke1st and his massive fanfiction, _Lightning and Death itself_. That fanfiction has around 200,000 words and 93 chapters as of now. What a legendary fanfic author! Thank you for the inspiration, Cke1st!

These A/N's are mostly housekeeping and should thin out as the story progresses. Of course, you don't need to read them: They are only for getting non-plot messages out there.


	6. Chapter 4, Know your limits

_**Toothless POV**_

Late that evening, we got back to Berk. It had been around two hours since the victory on land. Astrid came out of the house to greet us.

"Hey, Hiccup! How'd it go? Did you get –" Hiccup cut her off.

"Please," he said quietly, but not quietly enough, "Not around Toothless."

"Why? What –" Hiccup gestured for them to talk later. I quietly slinked past. The two humans followed behind me into the house. I quietly slipped upstairs. After about twenty minutes failing to sleep, I quietly eavesdropped on Hiccup and Astrid's conversation.

"Astrid, I don't think you should discuss the war effort around Toothless." Hiccup began.

"Why not? Did something happen?"

"Astrid, you remember back when Toothless used to attack Berk with the other dragons. Remember how he never killed any of us? He went out of his way to avoid killing. But today, he had to turn his back on that principle. He was tasked to destroy the Berserker camp. He had to destroy armored guns that inevitably had people in them, he had to take out gun emplacements, and he had to level a campsite." I was starting to regret eavesdropping. "He had to kill. The fire blast that he hit the camp with actually hit something explosive, and leveled the entire campsite. There were around twenty-five hundred dead. The rest surrendered to us and were permitted to properly bury the dead before being taken prisoner." _Hang on, I…twenty-five hundred…_and just like that, my train of thought became a runaway. I sobbed quietly. Unfortunately, not quietly enough. "Toothless? Is that you?" I warbled. I heard Hiccup face palm. "Well, the milk is spilt. Toothless, I need to discuss another attack with you, so if you could come down here…" I trudged down the steps. "I just received word that a village is about to be emptied into Dagur's armada. That empty village needs to get knocked out. We have to do everything we can to make the Berserkers miserable. Astrid –" he motioned for her to come – "will lead the rest of the dragons against the armada. You and I will raid the village with Fishlegs and Snotlout."

I looked at him. Then I lowered my head for him to get on. "We'll wait for the armada to leave, and then make our move." I nodded, and with Hiccup on my back, I flew into the air and hovered.

_"Hookfang! Meatlug! Wake your riders and follow me!"_ A few minutes later, a very sleepy-looking Gronckle with an even sleepier Fishlegs on her ascended to us, along with Snotlout and Hookfang, who raced up and were raring to go.

"I hope I can get some of those Berserkers tonight," Snotlout commented as he drew his axe. I snarled at him. "What, did I say something wrong?" I wanted to say, _yes, yes you did,_ but Hiccup beat me to it.

"You did indeed." He looked at Snotlout. "We're trying to end a war, not kill." I figured he was saying that for my benefit, but I wasn't about to object to it.

"Not something you often hear a chief say," he muttered. "Alright, where to?"

"Just follow us."

"Got it."

"When can we get this over with? I want to sleep." Fishlegs rubbed his eyes. Hiccup didn't answer.

He preferred whispering into my ear, "Come on, bud. Let's go." And with that, we began the three-hour flight to Berserker Peninsula.

About two and a half hours later, we pulled into the clouds and observed the Berserker village from a distance. Hiccup's information proved accurate, and the village almost entirely emptied into the fleet to crew it.

I felt bad for them already.

We waited until the Berserker fleet disappeared past the horizon before diving on the village. I saw two more armored guns, and changed targets to destroy them. I felt far less distaste for the destruction of said vehicles, because they were an actual threat to me. The camp, on the other hand, was totally defenseless. I bolted the first one and quickly took refuge in the clouds. I heard a satisfying _BOOM_ as its shells detonated. Then, I dove on the second one. As I prepared to fire, I discovered that I could no longer produce that kind of fire. I instead fired a blast, and the concussive force was enough to disable it, but the fact that I couldn't produce this kind of fire was worrying. We refocused our fire on the village's Mead Hall and blasted it to bits. I spent my last two shots on the forge, and made sure no more weapons would exit it for a long time. I then used whatever remnants of fire that I had left to set buildings on fire. We left the village in ruins behind us.

As we flew home, we overflew wreckage from the armada. We slowed to look for any surviving ships. As much as I hated war, I knew that we had a duty to protect Berk. As my fire recharged, I watched the dull flashes of explosions near the horizon. We spotted a straggler and flamed it. I blasted it, disintegrating it completely. I left nothing for the others to shoot. Then we came up to the rear of the ship formation. The catapults were aimed right at us, and fired with deadly accuracy. I spiraled out of the way, wingtips touching the water as I rolled. Snotlout and Hookfang were not so lucky – or maneuverable. The stone hit Hookfang in the face and knocked him out. I roared for help, and a Thunderdrum popped out of the sea.

_"What do you need, sire?"_ it asked.

_"A dragon, a Monstrous Nightmare, has just fallen from the sky. Please help him and his rider!"_ I replied, and the Thunderdrum peeled off and dove into the water. I blasted the rearmost ship, and its mast collapsed, setting the deck afire. I had no time to waste: I immediately lined up the next ship and blasted so that it would detonate underneath the ship. As I expected, the ship, suddenly lacking ocean underneath it, collapsed in on itself. The armada was effectively surrounded. We watched as the fleet was ripped to shreds by our dragons. Only two or three ships remained, and I watched as they raised a white flag above their mast.

They had surrendered.

Hiccup guided me and I landed with barely a _thump_. I felt Hiccup slide off my back.

"Do you surrender?" He asked.

"I, Warf, Commodore of the Berserker Armada, hereby lay down arms to you." Warf slowly drew his axe. I snarled at him. But he placed it on the deck, and all his compatriots did the same.

"Then you will sail to Berk under your white flag. You will be taken prisoner until the war is ended." He motioned for me to come up beside him.

"I understand." He dropped to his knees and bowed to Hiccup. But I saw something glint in his hand. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, but nevertheless put myself between him and Hiccup. When he stood, I noticed he had a small ring on his finger. I was then suddenly very happy that I held my fire. Hiccup came and climbed back onto me. He patted me.

"Let's go home, bud." We flew for another ten minutes or so before getting back to Berk. Hiccup informed the docks that the Berserkers were surrendering and that the ships' crews were to be taken prisoner. We went home, knowing that the fleet was – at least for a month – out of the picture.

Later that night, I went outside and experimentally tried to bolt a stone. But nothing came out. Then, it hit me as hard as Hiccup's bola launcher: I was out of quartz. The fire that I would most need to take out Berserker armored weapons was entirely dependent on quartz. The limits of this fire were evident. I went up to Hiccup's room. He was snuggled up with Astrid. I hated to disturb the comfortable couple, but I had to find quartz. Otherwise, I would be all but unable to take out the armored guns. I tapped Hiccup repeatedly.

"Mmmf…What?" He took his head out of his pillow. I looked at Hiccup, then put my tail in front of him. "You want me to lock your tail?" I nodded.

"Hiccup…Come back to bed…"Astrid groaned.

"I'll just be a sec. I need to lock Toothless' tail for some reason." Then he bent down and locked it for me. I gave him a big lick and took off. "Astrid? I might need to wash up first." I chortled as I climbed into the sky in search of this vital substance. As I did so, I reflected on the people I'd inevitably…ended. I decided that I frankly should not 'beat myself up' about it, as Hiccup would say. They were attacking my home, after all. And that's where I draw the line. If I or my rider feels threatened by something or someone, or if my home is in danger, then I feel little guilt about it in comparison to the simple slaughter of the day before.

I am what Hiccup would call rational; I have boundaries that I never overstep. And that's one of them.

_A/N: So, now we know where Toothless draws the line. Coming up next: The – short – hunt for quartz crystals is underway! As usual, please R&amp;R! _


	7. Chapter 5, Crystal Clear

_**Toothless POV**_

I first overflew the cove, where I had originally (accidentally, it must be said) ingested the crystal (it's a long story). There was no quartz to be found. I then went into the mountains. I searched each cave system, and met an ancestor of the Fireworm, the firefly, but could not seem to lay a claw on that elusive compound. Frustrated after fruitlessly searching through midnight straight through till dawn, I blasted a rock nearby. When it fell open, I discovered it was a geode, full of quartz. I picked it up in my mouth, and sprinted on land all the way back to Berk.

When I burst through the door, still carrying the quartz in my mouth, Hiccup was with Astrid, and was giving her a ring, with a small piece of quartz as its jewel. Then Astrid said,

"Hey, Toothless." Hiccup whipped around, accidentally flinging his pencil at me. I grunted, then let the quartz fall onto the ground and nosed the offending pencil back to Hiccup.

"Sorry about that. What's the huge piece of quartz for?" I broke a piece off the end, and swallowed it whole. "Oookay. Any –" Then I bolted a hole through the wall behind me, then through a stone sitting outside, then through a smaller pebble. "Are you telling me you need this stuff to do that?" I nodded. "Well, that's clear as mud. Why quartz?" I shrugged. I had _no idea_ why quartz. "By the way, we found Mildew on the southern beach. There were boat tracks in the sand. I wonder what he was up to this time." I didn't want to know. But it didn't matter; Hiccup was inevitably going to tell me as soon as he found out.

Then, Commodore Sven popped in again, as I swallowed another chunk of the crystal. "Sorry to bothe' ye, sar! Dagur's men are forcing the land route!" _Oh great._

"C'mon Toothless, let's go!" He hopped onto my back. I had flapped twice before I realized Hiccup wasn't controlling my tailfin. He slipped his prosthetic in, then I put on a whole new burst of speed as he configured for maximum speed. It took us just under half the time it took last time to get to the front.

Hiccup didn't need to ask what they had: They were actively charging the field, and our bowmen were doing their best, but there weren't enough of them. And there were three more of those armored guns, hiding under anti-dragon gun support and other gunfire. The machines were deafeningly loud. I nudged Hiccup to lock my fin, which he immediately did, and then I sprinted to around three thousand feet in around fifteen seconds. I dove on the armored gun closest to the Berkian lines. I placed my shot where I figured it would be most effective. The bolt caused an explosion so big, it concussed all the Berserkers around it. I did a half-loop to turn around, and lined up the second one. I had just released my bolt when… I don't know. One of the anti-dragon guns must have hit me. I tried to climb out, but it was no use. The awful pain from my right wing suggested that there were multiple tears in it. Tears would heal, but not quickly. They hit me a second time and I fell to the ground.

I glanced at my right wing. It was torn so badly I wasn't sure I'd ever fly again, let alone today. I stood up in the midst of the Berserker advance. I fired off a third bolt at the third armored gun, before getting in close with the Berserkers. I swept three of them off their feet with my tail, and used my left wing to block big hits, such as hammers. The membrane on my wings was thin, but surprisingly resilient. I fired a blast at a group of Berserkers. They were in phalanx formation, shields locked together. But that didn't change that they were made out of wood, and that wood still can't block a plasma blast. The blast that I fired vaporized the shield in the middle, dividing the flanks. Whenever I got in close with an enemy soldier, I tried to incapacitate, not kill. So I went for the legs and arms, not the torso or head. I saw out of the corner of my eyes that Hiccup was fighting his way towards me. I whipped around, tripping another four Berserkers, and blasted a hole in the line of Berserkers encircling me for Hiccup to get through. He immediately saw my right wing, and placed himself to my right, to protect it from further damage. Suddenly, a Berserker soldier lunged at Hiccup. Without thinking, I blasted him at point-blank range. I expected everyone to be disorientated by the concussion of the blast. I did _not_ expect that _I_ would be affected as well. But I recovered quickly, grabbed Hiccup's collar, and made a wild break for the Berkian lines. I gently lay Hiccup on the ground. Before turning around, I heard Hiccup murmur,

"Don't do that, Toothless." I warbled a _sorry_ to him. He smiled. That reassured me that the force didn't damage his ears _too_ much. I then reserved myself to strictly second line, blasting what I could to take some of the pressure off the Berkians. The guns had stopped firing, probably because the Berserkers were too close to the Berkians to take shots without risking hitting the Berserker troops. We seemed to be holding the line quite effectively, but then I ran out of shots. When I tried to blast a group of Berserkers, all I exhaled was blue fumes. _Great. Just great._ So I roared for the rest of the dragons to come up and fight. A squadron of Deadly Nadders flew in, burning lines between the Berkians and Berserkers. I had to admire their precision, almost equaling my own. Then a flight of Gronckles dropped a volley on the largest masses of Berserker troops. A Monstrous Nightmare flew into the middle of the action and set himself on fire, causing ever more chaos among the group. Finally, my shots recharged and I blasted away another volley, taking down another bunch of Berserkers. Finally, after heavy losses, the Berserkers started to pull back. Skullcrusher landed beside me. He had on his back Eret, son of Eret.

"Well, hello there, Chief. And good day, Toothless." I warbled a greeting back as Eret helped Hiccup to his feet.

"Thanks, Eret. That was hard fought, huh buddy?" I experimentally extended my right wing. There were punctures and tears dotting my entire wing. None of it looked too bad, though. A week or two would probably be enough to heal, assuming it was cared for. "I'll take that as a 'yes.'"

"That's a lot of damage there. You should go to Gothi. She's in that tent down there with Gobber helping her." I nodded and trotted off. Luckily I could read Norse (somewhat), so I could tell that one line was for Vikings, and the other for dragons. There was no one in the dragon line except me. I watched the remarkably long line for the treatment of Vikings, and curled up for a nap. I figured it would be a while before Gothi was through with the Vikings.

That evening, I awoke to Gothi tapping me on the nose with her stick. I extended my right wing for her to see. She motioned for me to come inside. I took up most of the space in the tent, but that was fine; it was otherwise empty. I observed as Gothi picked something up. I watched, cross-eyed, as Gothi rubbed the dragon nip on my nose. It didn't take too long for me to fall unconscious. The operation must've taken most of the night, because when I was dismissed with a stern warning not to fly for the next week, the sun was about to rise. I went to Gobber, who was working in the forward forges, fixing weapons for the Vikings.

"If ye're looking for Hiccup, 'e's in the furthest tent down that way, on the left." I nodded a _thank you_ and bounded off to Hiccup's tent. I stuck my nose in through the crack where he would enter and exit.

"Hey, bud!" Hiccup opened the tent opening so I could fit through. "How's your wing?" I flapped _very _slowly, then shook my head. "You can't fly? I figured. How long? A day?" I shook my head. "Two days?" I shook my head again. "Three?" And again_._ "A week?" I finally nodded. "Oh well, we've beat them back pretty hard. I doubt they have any of those armored gun things anymore. We're using the Gronckles to replace your role as a striker. But I have to say, they don't do it with anything near your ability. And before you ask, yes, there was a second engagement last night. The Nadders encircled them and they surrendered. They're in the Berk jail now." I nodded again, then sidled up beside him. Then the exhaustion of the day before hit me like a stone, and I fell asleep right then and there, on my own four feet.

_**3**__**rd**__** person POV**_

Hiccup watched the Night Fury keel over.

"Bud?" He put his ear against Toothless' chest. He satisfied himself that Toothless' tiresome day had merely caught up with him, and he fell asleep just like that. Hiccup fell asleep with his head against his dragon's chest. _With a day of fighting comes a night of sleep,_ Stoick had once said. To Hiccup, this saying was suddenly as clear as the quartz Toothless brought into the house the morning before.

_A/N: I kind of trapped myself into this chapter with the last one…oh well. We resume our regular programming ASAP. Hope you enjoy this! As usual, please R&amp;R!_


	8. Chapter 6, Biting Back

_A/N: The next phase of the war is underway: The counterattack._

_**Toothless POV**_

I awoke the next morning to find Hiccup lying against my side. I got up and heard a _thump_ as Hiccup's head hit the ground. It was followed by an

_"OW!"_ I nuzzled Hiccup, trying to get him to rise. He eventually did. I glanced at my wing. It was looking better already. But I wasn't about to forget Gothi's warning. It must be said that she was very skilled. The stiches were as small as possible and were relatively close together, to ensure the flesh was joined well. But anyways…

Astrid entered the tent. "Should we start planning the counterattack?" She looked like she was raring to go.

Hiccup looked over. "Look at Toothless' wing! He can't exactly provide air support until a week today. He can't even fly!" I stretched my right wing out for good measure.

"Well, yeah, but Toothless isn't the only precision ground striker. The Gronckles can do the trick." I glared at her. "Well," she quickly added, "not with as much precision as Toothless, but they can get the job done." _Fair enough_, I thought as I lay my head back on the ground and curled back up. "Now that's not to say that Toothless has no use during the counterattack." I perked up my ears. "He can act as your guard." _So I'm on babysitting duty._

"Yeah, I don't think Toothless agrees with that."

"He wants to protect you, right?" I nodded. I'd rather be on babysitting duty than sitting in the camp, being of no use.

"Fine. We should go to the planning tent." _Right,_ I thought, almost aloud, and I got on my feet. "No, not you bud. The tent isn't big enough for you." So I lay back down. I watched Hiccup leave, and then stretched my wing again before going to sleep.

As usual, I had a commonplace – for me – nightmare, that I was under control of the dark alpha, and as he forced the fire out of me, Stoick didn't intercept it.

Hiccup woke me up just as the blast flew.

"Bud? Hey, you're awake! We're attacking in five minutes. You've been asleep for five hours. Come on, up and at 'em!" I didn't have the energy to indicate he was sounding like Stoick again. I warbled my complaint as he led me outside. "The Gronckles are going to do what you've been doing such a good job of to this point. You will be with me, staying to my left at all times, to protect your wing, and we will be leading the ground forces." I nodded. We went together down to the front.

The Berkians were surprised to see me. One yelled, "Shouldn't you be raining your shots from above?"

Hiccup replied, "Yes, but his wing was torn in a lot of places during our fight earlier this morning. He can't fly, and he wants to be useful, so he'll be with us on the ground today. I hope no one has any objections."

"Well, in that case, 'e should be restin'." Commodore Sven noted.

"Duly received, Commodore. Now, we counterattack!" He raised his fiery weapon. I was determined to give these Berserkers a damned good walloping. I watched as the Gronckles flew over us and let loose their blasts on the front lines. And that's when we charged.

I had no trouble at all keeping up with Hiccup, as you might expect. At least, until Dagur came out and met us face-to-face. He singled Hiccup out and engaged him one-on-one. I wanted to blast him, but Hiccup was too close. If I fired, I ran the risk of hitting Hiccup by accident. Nevertheless, I started to collect gas in the back of my throat.

"So, Hiccup. Come to surrender?" He teased. You have to remember, Dagur _is_ deranged, and he _will_ tease you in the midst of a battle.

"Actually, no. I came hoping you would, Dagur." Hiccup wasn't good at most kinds of combat, but swordfighting and verbal confrontations were his 'thing', as you humans would call it.

"Ha! Oh, Hiccup. The one thing you still have is the ability to make anyone laugh."

"Oh, really? And that's the Dragon Chief to _you_."

"All right, Dragon Chief, let's see if you inherited some of the ferocity of your namesake." And with that, he lunged. Hiccup's sword ignited, and they dueled for a few minutes. Dagur's blade locked against his. I watched the metal of Dagur's sword start to melt, and I knew that if Hiccup kept that position for long enough, it would melt through and Dagur would be defenseless. Unfortunately, Dagur knew that too. He broke the lock, and examined the metal for a split second. In that second, Hiccup glanced behind him, noticed that I was ready to shoot, and dove backwards. I let loose my blast, then watched as it exploded on his sword, disintegrating it. The blast was, however, not strong enough to get him, and he was fully aware of my presence now. He grabbed his dagger and switched it between his hands. He was trying to distract me. He must've realized it wasn't working, because he lunged. I head-butted him, then raked my claws across his chest, before ramming him backwards with my left wing. He fell to the ground, dazed. In that moment, I jumped on him and bit at him a few times, before seeing that he was drawing his knife. I jumped backwards. He got up a second later, and I watched him throw the knife.

At Hiccup.

I prayed to the gods, _Don't let me miss_, and shot.

Thank Thor, I lived up to my reputation.

The hilt – now lacking a blade – bounced harmlessly off Hiccup's armor. "Nice shooting, bud." Then Hiccup reignited his sword and deftly fused Dagur's armor so that he could barely walk.

He waddled back to his lines, declaring, "You've not seen the last of me! I'll be back!"

Meanwhile, Hiccup was still stunned because of my shot. He put on the face of, _I'm telling Astrid later_, and continued forward. I followed.

The rest of the night was a blur of fighting, blasting and taking names. Well, maybe not that last part. But you get the idea. One second, it was a platoon of Berserkers rushing, trying to drive a wedge between Hiccup and I. It didn't work. The next second, they were strewn across the battlefield, and the battle was starting to tip in our favor. Then Dagur unleashed his surprise.

A massive, multi-gunned, armored vehicle rolled out onto the battlefield. The Gronckle flight immediately started bombarding it, and they were making progress, until the Berserker anti-dragon guns found their range. They retreated, and large gun fire started to fall upon the Berkian soldiers near the vehicle. I watched as it rolled forward on metal links. So, I melted the metal links. At first, it didn't seem to be affected. Then it ground to a halt in the middle of the field. We advanced past it, and it couldn't bring its guns to bear on us. Its guns seemed limited to a forward arc. I thought to myself, _dragons one, technology zero._ But my score was quickly evened, as the guns found _my_ range. It must have been Dagur, ordering his men to fire at me specifically. Nothing else was possible with that many shells falling so close to me. Then I had an idea. I sprinted back toward the armored gun, and the gun crews were definitely aiming at me. I jumped on top of the massive armored gun. They stopped firing. I suddenly looked down, and saw a hatch that must have been how the people got in and out. I melted it away, and then loosed a blast inside the vehicle.

I completely miscalculated how big the _boom_ would be. The gun housing I was standing on flew off from the rest of the armored vehicle, and it was very hard to resist extending the wings and jumping clear. But if I did that, there was a good chance I'd never fly again. So I only did the first part: I jumped clear. The ground was not where I expected it to be. I face-planted right into the field. But I looked up, and in that split second, saw the gun housing falling toward me. I scrambled out of the way, and it landed where I'd been a moment before with such force that the ground shook under my feet. I looked around to make sure no more debris was going to fall on me. Then I scanned the area for Hiccup. I didn't realize that he had snuck up directly behind me. So when he tapped me, I whipped around and slapped him in the face with my good tailfin. Suddenly the ground was a lot more interesting than it was the moment before.

"Sorry, bud. I didn't mean to scare you." I looked up. Then I bent down for him to get on. "I thought you weren't allowed to go flying." But he got on anyway. _Who said anything about flying?_ And I sprinted back.

We came into the tent, and Astrid was back from the fight already.

"Astrid, something _incredible _happened out there today."

"How incredible?"

"So incredible you should probably sit down for it." Astrid sat down.

"What happened?"

"Toothless shot a dagger out of the air."

"He _what?_"

"Dagur was on the battlefield today. He and I fought. Eventually Dagur put some distance between he and I. Then he threw his dagger at me. Toothless shot it out of the air." Astrid was duly impressed.

"That's really impressive, Toothless."

"Oh, and it was flying through the air fast enough that the hilt, the only part that didn't melt, still dented my armor."

"Well then. Dinner _was_ ready, but now it's almost ready." She dragged ten Atlantic Cod over. They were _huge_. I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't dreaming. "_Now_, dinner is ready." I looked almost as gobsmacked as I probably looked when Hiccup first attached that new tailfin to me. She laughed. "Go on. They're for you." I glanced down at the cod. Then back at Astrid. Then I chomped down on the first one. That evening was the first time that I couldn't eat all of my dinner. I fell asleep that night with a stomach fit to burst.

_A/N: So, a bit of Hiccup bragging about Toothless' abilities. I mean, Night Furies never miss. :) Also, Atlantic Cod can be up to 212 pounds. So, a _lot_ of fish for Toothless. These chapters are constantly getting longer and longer. This one's around 1900 words. The first chapter was 1200._

_The super armored vehicle that Toothless detonated was identical in design to a KV-VI Bolshevik tank. The real KV-VI was to weigh something like a hundred and fifty tonnes. It was never built._

_Also, totally unrelated, but I was reading the Guinness Book of World Records, and it had an entry for "Heaviest armored vehicle". It was a 62.5 metric ton bridge-laying vehicle. Am I wrong in thinking that 190 metric tonnes is more than 62.5? Because the Maus Superheavy tank weighs in at around 200 metric tonnes. Oh Guinness, you didn't do your research, now did you? And before you ask, yes, they did build one. Actually, they built two and a half._


	9. Chapter 7 Part A, The BAF

_A/N: Thank you to BerkMan for another constructive review! I really appreciate the encouragement! Anyways, a departure from the Toothless POV because this could only really be written in the third person, for the omniscient perspective! Anyway, please R&amp;R!_

_**3**__**rd**__** person POV**_

Seven days of hard fighting later, heavy losses on the dragon side, and much quartz later, Hiccup was getting tired of all of these armored guns popping up here and there, and needed a way to get rid of them. He invited Astrid over to the table.

"We need to get rid of these armored gun things for good. Toothless can only deal with three of them at a time, and all the other dragons just…can't."

"Well," Astrid mused, "These guns have to be _made_ somewhere, right?"

"You're thinking of hitting the factories, aren't you Astrid?"

"Yep."

"The problem is, with those anti-dragon weapons all over the place, it isn't safe to do that kind of mission with all the dragons."

"Isn't Toothless invisible at night?" Astrid glanced over to the jet-black snoring reptile.

"Well, he is, but he's only one dragon, and he can only shoot six times."

"Right, then he recharges for ten minutes, then he can shoot six times again. It's a perfect amount of time, really. It's just long enough for people to think you're gone, and then you hit them again."

"You make a good point, Astrid. Toothless will be virtually undetectable. We can bombard with impunity. It seems as though air superiority will win this war." Hiccup turned to his paper and started planning. Of course, he would want to hit the village of Myanmur, the closest village to the front, where he had seen had some of the massive forges that were capable of pumping out those metal beasts. He then realized that the armored guns were getting rarer and rarer. He wondered if the Berserkers were running out of resources to use to make them. He then added the shipyards to the list. The Berserkers certainly had a fleet ready by now. Hiccup would need to get some reconnaissance done, to figure out what to hit to hurt them most. He walked over to Toothless. Then, he pinched Toothless' ear. A bad idea, in retrospect.

Toothless reared up and roared angrily. "Sorry bud. I had to get you awake." Toothless gave him a look that said, _don't do that_. "Yeah, I know you don't like it when I pinch your ear, but we need to get some reconnaissance done tonight, and you're the only dragon that's built for stealth." Toothless grumbled, but eventually bowed for Hiccup to get on. Besides, he'd been unable to fly for eight days. He wanted to get back up there and _fly_! So he took off for his first flight in a week and a day.

About three hours later, they got very close to Myanmur, and Hiccup observed that the fleet was nearly a hundred and fifty ships strong. It was about right for the reduced number of dragons left after the – so far – one-and-a half week war. Unfortunately for the dragon side, half of the dragons left were wounded. Hiccup took great care to note where the factories were, and the shipyard location. There was also a long stretch of flat stone, suitable for landing dragons on.

"Amazing, isn't it, bud?" Hiccup breathed. Toothless cocked his head in a _what-do-you-mean_ sort of way. "They build those massive self-propelled machines on land, but on the sea, they still use longboats and catapults." Hiccup couldn't see, but Toothless frowned. Eventually Hiccup added, "See how close you can get to the village, bud, before they notice you. Toothless grudgingly obliged, and got to around a hundred feet or so from the factories before someone yelled, _"THERE!"_ and Hiccup and Toothless sprinted off back to Berk. They landed at an hour or so into the new day. Hiccup glanced over to Toothless, and asked, "How far away can you hit those factories and still hit and destroy them with one shot? Two hundred feet?" Toothless pointed up with his claw. "Three hundred?" Toothless nodded. "So the plan stands a good chance of working. You can go back to bed now, bud. Now it's just a matter of putting all the pieces together and making a workable plan." Toothless checked his right wing one more time before going off to sleep. Hiccup pulled an all-nighter planning the strike. By the time Astrid woke up and came downstairs and started scolding Hiccup for staying up _"ALL NIGHT?!"_ and waking Toothless, his plan was virtually fail proof. Hiccup laid out his plan before Astrid and asked if she could find any way to counter it, using what they knew the Berserkers had so far.

Meanwhile, in the empire of Berserk, Dagur was approving contracts with deals to acquire weaponry from a faction known to them only as the Russ. They had gotten all their designs so far from the Russ, and now were trying to acquire a real counter to dragons. All the weapons they had: The armored guns, the artillery guns and the anti-dragon weapons were all Russ designs. Dagur made another voyage to Russ after getting out of the armor fused together by that _insufferable _little boy and his dragon. His task? To acquire some SPAD aeroplanes from the IRAS. The Berserkers' main problem, however, lay in their constant attempts to mix Russ _technology_ with Viking _methodology_. But of course Dagur didn't see the problem. Some elements of his armies would say that he didn't see _anything_, let alone the problem with his own armed forces. But if they spoke up, they'd get executed for treason.

That evening, Hiccup laid out his plan, step by step, to Toothless, and then added,

"We do it tomorrow night; my brain is too tired to do it tonight." Toothless nodded, then assembled all the tamed dragons, and asked them to repeat the plan over to everyone else. He asked them to say it back to them, just in case they missed something. They didn't. Then they ran off and told everyone else within a matter of twenty minutes. The dragons then decided to get ready for the offensive, with the Nadders chomping down on magnesium, the Gronckles eating rocks like there was no tomorrow, the Nightmares conserving their fire (it recharged by itself) and Toothless doing the same. When Toothless arrived back to the Chief's house later that evening, Hiccup was passed out and snoring over the table. Toothless carefully slid his body under Hiccup's and brought him up to the Chief's bed, where Astrid was also snoring. In their sleep, Astrid snuggled up to Hiccup. Toothless couldn't help smiling his toothless attempt-of-a-smile.


	10. Chapter 7, Part B The BAF

_**Toothless POV**_

With yet another repetition of the age-old nightmare of the dark alpha, and Stoick being nowhere to be seen, et cetera, I woke up to the tune of the Terrible Terrors singing on the rooftops. I looked over, and saw Hiccup to still be fast asleep. So I sidled out quietly, and went around, visiting the forges. I saw Gobber, and came up behind him. Then I noticed the forge had died, and Grump was fast asleep. I decided to blast it, and my accuracy didn't fail me. But Gobber jumped with fright, and screamed,

"_AAGH!_ Oh, hi Toothless." My ears perked up involuntarily. "Don' scare me like that! You're as bad as 'iccup when he was inventin' all those contraptions that inevitably hurt someone. You know that firsthand." He gestured to my tail, and I suddenly understood why Hiccup didn't like discussing his fake leg, especially when I was around. "The only difference is, in your case, i' worked." I looked at him in that same way that Hiccup would always look at Gobber whenever he groaned about Hiccup's changing of his artificial leg design. "What? It's true." I nodded. It was.

"Hey, while you're here, do you want to help me with this?" I came in for a closer look. "It's a little gift for Astrid and Hiccup." I looked at it very closely. It was made out of silver, and the crystal was expertly cut, so that when I looked at it in the light, a sudden reflection of the sun blinded me for a few seconds. I looked at Gobber, thinking that there was only one improvement I wanted to make, and then felt my nostrils flare as I exhaled a few embers through them. Then, the forming process was complete. I let out a small grunt before dropping the small crystal in front of Gobber. It was identical to the crystal, except that it was not a diamond. We dragons knew it as the Covenant Stone, to be given to the one that you trusted most. Every dragon could only make one, and then they were bonded to whoever they gave it to for good. Gobber immediately understood. "You want me to replace the diamond with this stone?" I nodded. "Wow. It's already shinin', so I don't need to cut it." He replaced it in a few minutes. "Come on, let's go give this to the young lad." We went together up to the Chieftain's house.

When we entered, Hiccup was up and was cleaning the dishes after breakfast. "Hey, Gobber. Did Toothless get you to come?" He tossed me a salmon, which I swallowed whole. Gobber began the presentation.

"No, 'e didn't. I was working on something, since business as a dragon dentist wasn't exactly booming this mornin', when a certain Night Fury dropped in to say 'hi'. I showed 'im what I was workin' on, and asked if 'e could make any improvements. 'e made one. So, made by Toothless and I, 'tis a small gift for ye." And he presented the ring. It had a Norse engraving on it, which read, "Dragon Chief."

"Wow. So, what's the improvement Toothless made?"

"'e made the crystal. Just stood there for a sec an' then gently lay that small bright crystal on the table. I replaced the original diamond with it."

Hiccup looked at the stone for a while. Eventually he asked, "Bud, is this a Covenant Stone?" I nodded. "Fishlegs told me about them from the Book of Dragons. I didn't know they were real. Toothless, Gobber, thank you both." What he didn't know was that the Covenant Stone had a practical use as well. It was a fiery ability; let's leave it at that for now.

Later on that evening, we all amassed above the island. We flew to Myanmur in the formation that Hiccup had earlier defined, so the Gronckles were in the middle, the Zipplebacks at the rear, the Nightmares along the front of the wedge formation, and the Nadders trailing in the back. The six ridden dragons, Barf &amp; Belch, Hookfang, me, Meatlug, Stormfly and Skullcrusher were all in front. We flew at the speed of the Gronckles, so it took us just under four hours to get there. The Nightmares split off and once they were far enough away, they lit up, to attract the fire of the defenses. The Gronckles descended to a lower altitude, and the Nadders took the lead. I left the rest of them to their own, and went for the factories. I let loose three blasts into the only factory in the village. It was left in ruins as I neutralized the singular defensive catapult. Everything was going very well, until I suddenly heard an eerie droning noise coming from the west. Hiccup must've heard it too, because he pulled me into a hover, and used his spyglass to look east.

"What in the name of Odin are _those_?" He held the scope in front of one of my eyes, and I caught a glimpse of the strange things. Whatever they were, they were fast. About five minutes later, they were distinctly recognizable to me. Of course, it was night. I have excellent night vision, better than a cat's. I saw winged flying machines racing toward us. I watched as something on the front of these flying machines burst into flames, and heard multiple _things _whizzing past us. I dove for all I was worth and pulled up a hair too late. I grazed the trees slightly as a result. The machines matched my every move, and were still blazing away at me. A few bits glanced off my scales, and I realized that these were the same weapons as the ones on that original Berserker fleet that had injured me. I wasted no time in loosing a blast behind me, timing it to detonate right beside the machines. One caught fire and crashed into another, and both went down in flames. The third was still following me, but then he clipped some trees, and was too badly damaged to continue the pursuit.

I then did the most idiotic thing of my life, which is saying a lot. I turned around and with one shot left, pursued a small flight of the machines, taking them by such surprise that of the five, I destroyed two, and those that were still in flying condition hit each other trying to turn out of the way. Hey, if it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid. I then flew alongside another that was strafing the Gronckles. I bit down on the edge of its right wing and braked hard. Suddenly I had a wing in my mouth that had no owner as the machine to which it belonged tumbled out of control into the canyon. I dropped the wing into the sea, and informed the dragons that the planes were flammable. The Nightmares soon started shooting jets of fire at all the airplanes, catching a few every time. The Berserkers – it must have been them defending their village – that were left fell back to the small stone strip Hiccup and I had seen last time. I waited for my fire to recharge sufficiently that I could fire one shot, and blew a massive crater in the stone, from which massive cracks spread, effectively rendering it useless.

We had won the battle for the air, and the village was in ruins. I thought – erroneously – that we were in the clear. Suddenly, an anti-dragon explosion erupted directly in front of me. I dodged for all I was worth, but still felt the shrapnel puncture my _left_ wing in a fair number of places. Hiccup looked over at it, and noted, almost to himself: "We're going to have some trouble getting home with that wing." I knew that full well. The punctures were small, but they disrupted the airflow over the wing. Even worse, they were mostly at the front of the wing, which was the most disastrous place; the most lift was lost. A Typhoomerang, who had tagged along with the Nightmares, saw us losing altitude and dove towards us.

"_Are you all right, Alpha?" _This Typhoomerang obviously knew I was in trouble.

"_No," _I replied. _"I've tried_ _to fly with this kind of damage before. It can't be done."_

"_Then I will maneuver under you. You're free to hitch a ride back to the island."_

"_Thank you."_ I was actually very grateful, not just to take the pressure off a damaged wing, but also because it wasn't just my life at risk, but also Hiccup's. So I landed as gently as possible on the Typhoomerang's back. He took us all the way back to Berk. Our first encounter with this new weapon had gone surprisingly well for us, but I had a distinct feeling that once the Berserkers had those _en masse_, we dragons were living on borrowed time.

_A/N: A big thank-you to those who have chosen to favorite and follow this story! This chapter's in two parts because it's a big one, and I needed to switch POV's. Besides, 7 is my biggest chapter so far and I wanted to get at least part of it up ASAP. As usual, please read and review!_

_Also, so sorry I put up the wrong chapter! I accidentally put up chapter 2 a second time! Sorry about that!_


	11. Chapter 8, The Empire Strikes Back

_**Toothless POV**_  
When we arrived back to the island, we all went straight to bed; we would need our rest for the second attack on land. All of us, that is, except Hiccup. As I stretched out on the large stone slab that was my bed, I watched as he examined the Covenant Stone I had given him. Then I watched him leave, to return a few minutes later with Fishlegs.

"So, what do you think, Fishlegs?" Hiccup held it up to the light. "Is this one of those Covenant Stones you told me about a few weeks ago?"

"It certainly bears little resemblance to the Covenant Stone examples in the Book of Dragons, but Bork never got an example of a Night Fury's Covenant Stone, at least, as far as we know." Neither of them knew of the Covenant Stone's abilities, one of which was…

_"Hello, Hiccup."_ Hiccup jumped as if he had just been shocked by electricity. Communication is one of the Covenant Stone's powers.

"Hello, someone?" Hiccup looked around, trying to ascertain who said that. Fishlegs looked at Hiccup quizzically.

"I didn't hear anything." Fishlegs glanced around nervously.

_"What you're hearing is one of the Covenant Stone's powers: That of communication."_

"The Covenant Stone _what?_"

_"I can communicate to you without the need to speak aloud. You don't have to speak to communicate, either."_

"So, who are you, exactly?" Fishlegs had an obviously confused look on his face. It was slowly morphing into a laugh.

_"I'm the Night Fury that you named Toothless."_

"So, Toothless, you're talking to me _in my head_?" I shot an innocent look at Fishlegs. I knew from watching others do this in the past that this was the most fun part.

_"Yes."_

"I don't believe it."

"_Oh, really?"_

"Yep."

"_Well, start believing it, or my gift is wasted."_

"And why would I believe you?"

"_Because I'm your best friend."_

"Prove it's really you." Fishlegs cracked up. He was probably thinking Hiccup was going insane.

_"Challenge accepted. I'm going to knock the table five metres to the left of me over with my tail in three seconds."_ I waited three seconds, and knocked said table over with my tail. _"Anything else?"_

"Yes. Tell me something only you would know."

_"Alright. When we were in the cove, you caught my likeness with a stick in the dirt in twenty-nine strokes. Four of them were before I walked over."_

"By Odin…it really is you." Fishlegs had to leave at that second. When he closed the door, I heard him laugh loudly enough to wake most of the village. _Oh well…so Fishlegs thinks Hiccup's gone mad. He'll get over it soon._

_"Thank you for finally believing me, Hiccup. But for future reference, you don't need to speak aloud. Just think it, and I'll hear you, the same way you're hearing me."_

_ QUICK A/N: In future, when Hiccup is talking to Toothless mentally, his speech will be italicized, like when Toothless is talking. But Hiccup may forget to 'just think' sometimes and speak aloud…watch out for that…;)_

_ "Got it."_

_ "You're getting the hang of it already. So, I think a long-winded information speech about the Covenant Stone's power is necessary at this time."_

"Ok. Shoot." Fishlegs chose this moment to come back in.

_"You don't need to talk aloud, Hiccup. Anyway, the Covenant Stone. You just discovered the only 'free' power in the Stone; everything else costs something. That is communication. The next power is, as far as I know, species-specific. For a Night Fury, tapping it is like detonating a plasma blast around you. But it only works once. Ever. Use it wisely."_

"_What happens if I hit it accidentally, or if I hit it twice?" _He was obviously concerned as to the fact that it had one charge, and he didn't want to waste it.

"_As to hitting it accidentally, it won't work. You have to actively call on the power of my vow of an eternal bond with you. Or, more simply, you have to consciously unleash it. As to hitting it twice – consciously – that could kill me."_

"_I'll be sure to remember that."_

"_Please do."_

"_You should sleep, Toothless. Tomorrow is the attack. You need to be ready. And, Bud? Thank you."_

"_No. Thank you. You're the first individual – for lack of a better word – that I've ever trusted the way I trust you. And that stone is my physical symbol of loyalty to you. Although, I hope you'll never have to use its power."_ I licked Hiccup affectionately.

"Me too, bud. Me too." I fell asleep to Hiccup trying to explain everything to Fishlegs.

* * *

The dawn of the next morning, everyone flocked into the village square (which is really round). "You know what to do," he said to the dragons. We all understood Norse, no problem. It was the reverse that the Covenant Stone overcame. We all took off toward the ground route, leaving orders to the Berkian fleet to engage the armada should it be spotted. Around half an hour later, we were amassed at the frontlines, ready to attack.

Hiccup gave a short pep talk. "Today we finally drive the Berserkers back to their own lands! Today, we…ATTACK!" We all charged forwards, dragon and Viking alike. There were two more of the armored guns, which prompted Hiccup to ask, "Why aren't they building more?" But I started to line them up, when suddenly, more of those flying machines dove out of the sky, forcing me to pull out or get shot. The aircraft went straight past me, and strafed the Gronckle flights. Gronckles were tough, but not that tough. Many fell from the sky. I quickly bolted the first armored gun while there was no one engaging me, and whipped around for the second one, bolting it, but first the bolt went through an aircraft diving in front of me. But the bolt was still effective and took out that armored gun as well. However, I was now in a terrible situation: The armored vehicles and the aircraft were working together; when I took out the armored guns, I became a priority target, and five aircraft appeared, converging in from all directions. I climbed into the clouds and came out above them, before diving back down and loosing a blast that exploded near the flight of aircraft, and the fire of the explosion destroyed them. But it was no use. Eleven more dove out of the clouds, and I had to fly over the anti-dragon weapons to use them to tear the aircraft apart. When they shot at me, the aircraft behind me were who couldn't dodge the explosions. I still felt a real distaste for killing the Berserkers, but in war, I had to make concessions so that I could bear what I had to do. But at that point, I had other things crossing my mind that were significantly more important to survival.

The Berserkers fended off our attack with their heavy air support, and we had to pull back. It was as though they knew our plan, and deployed to counter it. Now they were counterattacking. We were forced to abandon a lot of our supplies in the camp, to get out of the way of the Berserker advance. Hiccup and I sprinted through the air back to Berk, and I immediately ran into Stormfly before I even landed.

"Alpha! We found Mildew dealing with some person! Follow me!" Without even landing, I followed her to the northern shores. We landed at the edge of the forest. She pointed with her tail, and I saw it: Mildew, a Berserker, a bag of gold and a Berserker sailing vessel.

"What do we do?" I asked Hiccup.

"We corner them. Stormfly, put some holes in that boat. We'll take care of Mildew and the Berserker." Stormfly nodded. Then she took off, her spines tearing the sail to bits. We landed behind the Berserker as this happened, and in that split second, I incapacitated him with my wings. Then Hiccup glared at Mildew. "Not. A. Step." I snarled at him for good measure. "What are you doing? If you don't tell me, I'll happily ask the Berserker."

"I was, uh, selling some goods." He looked around nervously.

"Sure, sure. To the Berserkers? The only thing they'd pay you for is spy work on our tactics." Hiccup slid off my back and grabbed Mildew by the scruff of his neck.

"Uh –" Hiccup grabbed his arms and crossed them over each other.

He took a rope out of who-knows-which compartment on his armor and tied Mildew's arms and legs, before pushing the old traitor to the ground. He then turned to the Berserker. "Toothless, you can take your paw off his chest now. He's allowed to breathe starting…now." I slowly complied.

"You aren't gonna get anything outta me!" The Berserker spat defiantly at Hiccup. It fell way short.

"So, you think you're the guy who's going to stand in front of the marching army and make it halt? We'll see about that. Toothless, do what you will with him. Maybe –"He winked. "He'll cooperate before you tear his…well, I don't want to ruin the surprise." Although I had never seen this intimidating side of him, I knew Hiccup was bluffing, and I – just as theatrically as Hiccup's speech – put my claws at his throat and made a big show of extending my teeth from their retracted position.

"Alright! Alright! I'll tell ya what ya wanna know!" Evidently, the bluff worked. "Your Berkian there was selling intelligence to us. I came to yar island to give him his…payment." Hiccup then proceeded to tie up the Berserker, and we escorted them on foot back to the Berk jail.

"Mildew, you are being arrested for high treason. Know that the sentence is banishment or execution, depending on the severity of the crime." Mildew gulped audibly.

Later that night, I took a survey. By my count, we had lost around a solid hundred dragons. That left something like a hundred and fifty alive, of which around ninety could fight. I returned to the house. I met Hiccup, and wordlessly motioned for him to sit at the fire with me.

"We lost something like a hundred dragons. That's almost half our kin, Hiccup. We have fifty who are badly wounded and cannot fight, and just under a hundred who can."

"I went around the foot soldier camp before we left. We lost twelve hundred men that we couldn't afford to lose. We have around that plus another two hundred men who are wounded. So, about a thousand men that can fight. That was a bad loss. The only forces that are still strong are the fleet, which hasn't seen action since day one, and we have two thousand men there. The tides of this war are reversing. Suddenly, we're outmatched. We have to get the island defences ready. Once the ground forces that are left have retreated to the beach, we're going to airlift them back to the island to prepare the last line of defence. Our only hope is that the Berserker…air force can't operate here, and we have to exploit the disadvantages in their design, such as their flammability. I've already developed timed ammunition for the catapults that explode after a certain amount of time. That should help, but I don't know if it's enough. Within a week at the most, the Berserkers will be able to attack this island. We have to pray that our defenses will hold. I mean, Gobber has built probably thousands of those explosive catapult munitions, but…" I didn't bother trying to correct him, that he didn't have to speak out loud. I knew he was worried, so I tried to reassure him.

_"We'll hold, Hiccup. No matter what the cost."_

As I fell asleep, I heard Hiccup say, "I don't know. The tide of war can sweep anyone out to sea, no matter how long we've lived on the island of peace." And I fell asleep.

A/N: The tide has turned against Hiccup and his Berkians. As usual, please R&amp;R! I actually re-watched the drawing scene to come up with that number.


	12. Chapter 9, General Withdrawl

_**Toothless POV**_

I was given a rather rude awakening the next morning, when Hiccup shook me awake, to the sound of the foghorn.

"Come on, bud! Wake up!"

_"Yeah, yeah." _I yawned_. "What is it?"_

_ "The Berserkers are pushing the land forces back under heavy air support. It's risky, but we have to take some of the pressure off the troops."_ I bent down to let him on, and we blasted for the second time in two days to the land route. It took us a lot less time, but only because the front was that much closer.

As we overflew the totally unopposed advance, we spotted a straggling tank, far away from the formation. I dove for it, and let yet another bolt out of my maw. When I overflew it and looked back, I saw with satisfaction that the crew were abandoning it. I had obviously done some sort of critical damage. I did an Immelmann turn and flew toward the wedge formation that was leading the charge forward. Another super-gun similar to the one I had destroyed a week or so ago was at the front. I loosed a bolt into its rear deck, and it started to burn. The crew seemed totally unaware of the fact that it was burning, and the fire worked its way to the fuel, turning a super-gun into a firework display. The _massive_ concussive force of that much fuel exploding battered _me_ around, and I was at least five hundred feet away. The nearest armored guns also exploded, probably due to the forces. _Add five armored guns destroyed or disabled to the list._ Suddenly, I heard a very loud whir behind me. I rolled out of the way, dodging a hail of bullets and noticing the aircraft behind me.

"_Hold on, Hiccup!"_ I screamed mentally to him, before whipping around, blasting the aircraft, and diving like there was no tomorrow to avoid the flaming aircraft falling from the sky. Thankfully, Hiccup did take my advice. I pulled another Immelmann and instantly bolted, _very_ nearly missing another armored gun. But it chose that moment to stop, my shot sailed into its rear deck, and it suffered a fate very similar to the super-gun. If I had more than three bolts, I could've helped turn the tide of this clash, but I was clean out. _"I'm out of armor shots, Hiccup!"_ He knew exactly what I meant, and steered me towards a small band of infantry, which I promptly blasted. I chose not to observe the effects of the blast.

There were still a massive number of armored guns – at least nine more – that were pushing up through the steppes, and I watched a Nadder – not Stormfly – use its magnesium flame to burn through its armor, disabling it. But I watched four aircraft swoop out of the clouds above, who promptly made relatively short work of the unfortunate Tracker dragon. In nothing more than pure, unblemished rage, I flew right up to the aircraft, clawing its wings, its fuselage, anything that would bring it down, before blasting each one. In my red-tinged vision, I failed to notice the fifth aircraft, until its rapid-fire guns riddled my artificial tail full of holes. Inwardly extremely thankful that it failed to hit my good tail, or Hiccup, or my wings, or, well, anything that _wasn't_ that artificial tail, I fell to the ground, expending my last shot as I fell to vaporize its tail. By sheer coincidence, it fell from the sky and landed on another armored gun, and both went up in flames. I looked around to get an awareness of the situation as Hiccup scolded me for my irrational behavior.

"- and don't do that again!"

"_Yes, Hiccup, I'm very aware that that was an irrational, risky move, but I just watched one of my kinsmen get killed. I wasn't about to let them get away with it. DUCK!" _That last part was because I noticed a Berserker swinging his sword at Hiccup. He instinctively followed my advice, before drawing Inferno. I had my work cut out for me trying to deal with the multiple troops closing in to help their friend with the fight. I swept them off their feet, glanced them with the hooks on my wings, clawed at them, bit at them. By the time I was done dealing with the rest of the infantrymen, Hiccup was still locked in combat with the Berserker. Then, Hiccup made an – almost – fatal mistake. The Berserker slipped his sword inside the upside-down "U" that his blade was made of and twisted it out of Hiccup's hand. The Berserker knocked my rider to the ground. He raised his sword to strike, and as he brought it down, I tackled him with all of my considerable strength. I knocked his sword out of his hand and clawed him across his chest. His steel plating was no match for my talons, and I left deep cuts along his ribs. I head-butted him hard enough to send him flying backwards to a second squad that was coming up to assist. During this small fight (by comparison) the fight had gone past us, and I got Hiccup on my back, sprinting quickly enough to catch up to the battle in just under five minutes of cold running. As we ran, Hiccup whispered a _thank-you_ into my ear. I didn't reply through the Covenant Stone, instead purring as I ran. I dropped Hiccup off with the shattered remains of the ground forces, and my fire had charged again. Suddenly a Gronckle fell from the sky, its wings shredded, its body riddled with holes. That drove me off the edge with rage. I blindly charged the armored formation, and I don't know firsthand exactly what happened. Hiccup says I charged, in the same way as I did when I challenged Drago Bludvist's Dark Bewilderbeast. He added that my blasts were so much more powerful that of the eight shots I fired, six of the armored guns I hit were destroyed. But it still wasn't enough. The Berserker reinforcements had arrived, and with them a whole new battalion of these guns. We were pushed back all the way to the beach, and we came up against Astrid and Stormfly.

"Astrid! You need to start using the dragons to evacuate the land route!"

"_All of you who can still fly!"_ I screamed. _"Take a Viking and get them to Berk. Do this until there are no more Vikings to take home!"_ All the dragons picked up two or three Vikings and took them home, except Stormfly and Astrid, as well as…Cloudjumper and Valka? _"What are they doing here?"_ I asked Hiccup.

"I don't know, bud. _MOM!_" Astrid looked at Hiccup for a second.

"_CLOUDJUMPER! FIRE! _What is it, Hiccup?" She seemed to be having the time of her life, showing the Berserkers who was boss.

"_WHAT IN ODIN'S NAME ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"_ Hiccup was visibly upset.

"Fighting! What does it look like, Hiccup?" She ducked under another small volley of bullets.

"Get Cloudjumper to take a few passengers and bring them back to Berk! We're evacuating to the island."

"As you say, son. Cloudjumper. You heard the chief!" Said Stormcutter snorted a reply, and grabbed Gobber and Sven before heading off. Suddenly I realized: All the dragons had taken enough people that Hiccup and I were all that were still on the land route. Hiccup noticed this as well.

"Well, that's just great. We seem to have been ditched, bud." I looked at my destroyed artificial tail. Then I saw a sail.

"_Hiccup! Could you use that sail to patch my tail to get home?"_ Hiccup looked at the sail, then at my tail, and nodded. I didn't wait for him to climb on. I picked him up with my mouth and ran for all I was worth to the ship. He grabbed his dagger and cut some of the sail off. He started to affix the fabric to my tail. I was keeping a close watch for Berserkers.

What felt like an eternity later, even though it was most likely no more than a minute, Hiccup yelled, "Done! Let's pray this holds," he said as he locked his foot into my tail and we launched ourselves toward Berk. We were nearly hit by an anti-dragon gun, but they missed, and I felt what seemed like a small piece of shrapnel glancing off of me from the explosion.

If there was anything good that came from that, it was that Hiccup decided from then on out to have spare tail fabric on hand for just such an occasion. The fabric held well enough to get us close to the island, but then it slipped off, and I tried to glide, but I wasn't high or fast enough and we crashed about a kilometre off the shoreline. Hiccup's harness worked well, though, to the point that when I surfaced, I heard the reassuring sound of Hiccup gasping for air.

"Do you think you can make this swim to the shore, bud?"

"_You don't need to talk aloud, Hiccup. And no, I doubt I can make it. But I can probably get close enough that you can." _Hiccup knew exactly what I meant. Then he looked up. Following his gaze, I saw a Berkian longboat patrolling.

"_Can you shoot a fireball to let them know we're here?" _He asked.

"_No. My head is wet. I can't light it."_

"_Well, in that case, we're lucky that black stands out very well against blue water."_ So I kept treading water, wings spread for as much buoyancy as possible. When they eventually fished us out of the water, Commodore Aldor, the commander of the Berk Fleet, told us that they were specifically out looking for us.

"Yer mother here, Hiccup, she noticed that Toothless' tail was shredded. When she remembered, she was already back on Berk, so she trusted that yer handiwork would at least get you close to Berk." This was about half a second before Valka grabbed Hiccup aside and started asking him if he was okay, et cetera et cetera. "Then it was a matter of looking for something black floating in a light-blue sea." At this point, I hadn't noticed, but the anti-dragon gun from earlier had actually punctured my chest, straight to the bone. I didn't _actually_ notice until I looked down at the deck and saw a small run of my blood. Valka had looked down on the deck and followed the trail with her eyes, which promptly widened slightly.

"Oh dear Thor! Just stay for a second, and I'll try to patch that up for you." She ripped part of the longboat's sail and dipped it in the salt water, to sanitize it as best she could. She wringed it out, warning me, "This might sting." She bandaged it and ordered me to rest. She was right. "Gothi will have a look when you get back. How did that happen?"

"_We were almost hit by an anti-dragon gun. The explosion nearby must have sent some shrapnel flying, some of which must have hit me."_ I looked at Hiccup.

"We were almost hit by one of those anti-dragon guns, whose shells explode in midair. I didn't see it myself."

"Then how do you know?"

"Toothless told me."

"You…_Toothless_ told you? I'm sorry, son but _how is that possible?_" Valka was understandably distraught that Hiccup had just told her that _I_ was talking to him.

"Mom…has Cloudjumper ever given you something that looks vaguely like this?" He pulled out the white-blue Covenant Stone.

"Yes…What's your point?" She pulled out the amber-like jewel that Cloudjumper had obviously given her and stared at it for a few seconds.

"_Cloudjumper,"_ I began, _"Why don't you finally say hello to your rider?"_ The Stormcutter turned towards Valka. She suddenly brought her hand to her head.

"Did _Cloudjumper_ just say hello to…Cloudjumper, did you just say hello to me?" She turned around to face the owl-like dragon, who nodded. Valka had to sit down for that.

"All of these twenty years, and I had the key in my hand the whole time. And I never knew." Suddenly the massive Stormcutter took off with a hearty 'cheerio!' Valka must have told Cloudjumper to go somewhere. "Hiccup, thank you." I chose to leave the two alone as they launched into one of their _many_ long discussions about us dragons, instead closing my eyes and drifting off to sleep…

* * *

…but only for about a half an hour, when we pulled into port. Hiccup nudged me awake rather gently. "Bud, come on. We need to head to the forges to get you a new tail." I slowly trudged off the ship, and Hiccup pulled me by his harness to the old forge. He made a new fabric, identical to the old but with only one minor difference: He had sewed in a small embroidered '2' into the bottom. I had to laugh at that…

Fishlegs came in eventually. He seemed to understand about the Covenant Stone now. So when Hiccup suddenly said, "Alright, alright! I get it," Fishlegs was no longer concerned; he just laughed. His face suddenly fell, and he gave Hiccup a parchment that said something that, at least, according to Hiccup's reaction, wasn't good.

* * *

Later that evening, I was lying on my side. Gothi had since removed the bandage, and examined my wound. She picked a small piece of metal out, and put a real bandage over it. Hiccup and Valka were both sitting against my ribs, as they often did when they were discussing something important. Valka was rubbing my neck under my ear, just the way I liked it.

"You seem troubled by something, Hiccup."

"Yeah. I am. Fishlegs gave me a report, detailing our losses today, both on the dragons' and the humans' part. We lost relatively few men compared to last time, only five hundred. Well, I _say_ only. That's half our remaining army."

"I can see why you're so troubled, son."

"It gets worse. We lost a hundred and fifty dragons. I know you called in help from the big nest, but at least a hundred of them are among the dead." Valka stopped rubbing my neck. I felt her keel over. "Uh, mom? Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not. I lead them to their doom." I wrapped my forearm around Valka, after Hiccup.

"Mom…I'm sorry that this had to happen. But don't beat yourself up about it. The Berserkers will do a good enough job of that without your help. At the start of this war, Toothless felt a similar guilt to the one you're probably feeling now. He was flying without my help; I had locked his tailfin. He destroyed most of the camp single-handedly. One of his shots hit something explosive, and killed two and a half thousand soldiers. One shot. He was just ripped in half with guilt after doing this. He still _does_ feel guilt about it. But he realized that it's war, and he made concessions, so he could live with it. We have to defeat the Berserkers. Otherwise, the killing will go on forever, and casualties will mount for as long."

"Son, I appreciate your words, but Toothless killed his _enemies_. I killed my friends."

"You didn't kill them. The Berserkers did." Before this conversation could continue, Commodore Sven burst through the door. My ears pricked up.

"Sar! We see Berserker sails on the horizon! There must be two hundred ships out there!"

"Ready the ships, Commodore! Mom –"

"I'll rally whoever will listen." She sighed, and got up.

"No, Mom. I want you to get all the dragons to stay on Berk. We need them to be here if the Berserker fleet punches through." Her eyes were suddenly a lot less downcast.

"As a Viking to her chief, I'm on it. As a mother to her son, thank you." Her eyes shone with gratitude. I knew what Hiccup was doing. He was keeping her out of the fight until the devastating guilt wore off, as he had done with me.

He burst outside, with me following close behind. He took out his spyglass. "Oh, gods help us all…"

_A/N: This is a monster chapter. Hope you all enjoy. And, YAY, I finally added Valka as a foreground character. As usual, please R&amp;R!_


	13. Chapter 10, You sank my battleship!

_**Toothless POV**_

I looked out to sea, and the sails were rapidly growing larger. The Berk Fleet had already set sail to meet them, armed with catapults and explosives. My markings glowed in their 'charged' state once more.

"Come on, bud! We have to help them!" I grunted an agreement, before allowing him on. As we flew over the (new) Berserker armada, I noticed that these ships were not metal-plated, so I could destroy them without the bolts. I had no problem with being alone for this task – with Hiccup, of course. We spotted the lead ship, and as we passed over it, through the thick smoke suddenly raised by the anti-dragon guns, I noticed Dagur was not there, for his tribe's crowning moment.

"_Why?"_ I asked, to no one in particular.

"_You mean, Dagur? I don't know, bud."_ He steered me into a dive for the lead ship. The blast I let loose hit the deck of the ship, and when I looked back, I saw that my blast had punctured the hull, and it was taking on water fast. Berserkers tried desperately to bail out the water, and the ship lasted for a little longer, long enough to hit an adjacent ship at full speed, crippling it too. Unfortunately, at this point, the Berserkers were putting up a very thick anti-dragon screen that seemed not to have any holes in it. I watched the Berk Fleet capitalize on the fact that all the Berserkers were looking up, and their first volley of explosive was devastating. Of the two hundred or so ships that had come against us, they had a good fifty destroyed, sunk or crippled. Now the Berserkers were looking down again, and I dove on the ships that were carrying the most guns. _Three more down_, I thought. Hiccup looked around, and tapped me gently.

"_Bud, drop me off on the Berkian lead ship." _He locked my tail as I landed on the deck. _"Be sure to save some for the fleet!"_ He winked. I couldn't help smiling my dragon-y smile.

'_I'll try, but it'll be hard."_ I leapt off of the Berk flagship, and soared to four thousand feet. There was a _massive_ ship in the middle. It was of the same hull shape as a longboat, but it was totally metal-plated, with four turrets that housed three guns each. It didn't have sails, and it billowed smoke, but it wasn't on fire. The guns in the turrets fired sequentially, reducing three of our ships to dust in as long as it took to fire. I charged a blast in the back of my throat – I hadn't had the chance to get any more fuel for my bolts – for a good thirty seconds before diving on it so quickly that I felt a dull _THUD_ and suddenly couldn't hear a thing. I let the blast fly. It flew through the air so quickly that it created a vapour cloud in a cone-like shape, and it was powerful enough that it forced the hull of the warship below the surface of the ocean, disabling two of the turrets in the process. The side hull bent in strange places as the bow plunged. I flew along the broadside of the warship, loosing a quick plasma blast into the bent areas of the metal. I pulled into a ninety-degree ascent, letting myself stall so I could fall back towards the warship. I almost loosed a third blast into the warship, but the whole ship was billowing thick, black smoke through the windows on the sides, and I redirected my blast into a different, wooden longboat. I hastily pulled out, and not a second too soon: The warship exploded with a massive _KAROOM_, sending giant chunks of metal in all directions. One hit me; An entire turret flying past me, and a few shards of metal punctured my wing. I was still able to fly, so I kept going. As I flew back over the carnage, the stern section of the warship, flaming and sinking, put up a thin anti-dragon cover. It wasn't enough. I flew over the warship's wreck, the wrecks of four longboats that had obviously been impacted by some of the metal pieces, and set fire to the fifth in the line. It swerved at just that moment, and my shot destroyed its tiller, and it rammed another ship. Both were crippled.

* * *

_**3**__**rd**__** person POV**_

Dagur was flying in a large two-engined aircraft with his new Commodore. He watched the _hated_ Night Fury lay waste to the pride of his fleet. He gasped behind his binoculars.

"Damn all you dragons! You sank my battleship! Commodore, just ask me how angry I am right now. _JUST ASK ME!"_ The Commodore wisely chose not to ask, instead focusing on hiding his aircraft in the clouds.

* * *

_**Toothless POV**_

Meanwhile, at the front of the armada, the Berkians were putting up a tough fight now that the warship was gone, and the fight seemed to be even in terms of the numbers, but the Berserkers were re-purposing their anti-dragon guns as anti-ship guns, obliterating some of the Berkian ships. I let my sixth shot fly into the heart of the lead Berserker formation, and the middlemost ship caught fire. Its mast fell onto another ship, and the ships-touching formation slowly became a conflagration, but it sank all but two of our ships when the commanders veered their ships into the Berkian fleet. Then something extraordinary happened. There was one Berserker ship left, and its two guns fired at separate targets, crippling the Berkian ships as the catapult stone sailed through the Berserker ship's deck, sinking it. One seemed able to get back to Berk on its own, but the flagship was listing heavily. I landed on the deck, and the list became even more pronounced. A small fire had started, and this I beat out with my sub-wings. I started ferrying people over to the ship that seemed the more capable of floating. I started with Commodore Aldor and three Vikings. I repeated this trip, carrying four to the ship each time, ten times, until it was just Hiccup. He climbed on just as the deck started to go under. The Vikings on the surviving vessel tossed me a rope, and as I pulled them back to shore, I felt we were very lucky that there were no aircraft there to defend the fleet. This fight would have been all the more one-sided if there were. I felt my markings cool down again.

"Let's call that one a draw, bud." I nodded. Suddenly I felt the pain from when one of the guns smashed into me. I lost a few feet of altitude, realizing the adrenaline effect must be wearing off. Hiccup saw some of the punctures in my wing. _"The warship exploding?"_

"_Yes. I didn't expect that explosion. Don't worry; I can get this ship to shore."_ Sure enough, we made it to the dock. Many of the Berkians seemed afraid.

"Everyone! There will be a meeting in the Great Mead Hall tonight. We will discuss next steps there." He then turned to me. "That was some amazing air support out there, bud. You should go to Gothi." I nodded, and when I went, she "told" me with her writing that whatever had hit me in the chest had bruised a rib, and that the punctures were nothing to worry about. I found Hiccup at the house and gave him this verdict.

"Alright, good to know." He seemed very focused. I looked at him concernedly. I didn't need to speak to him through my Covenant to express my worry. _"Sorry, bud. I'm just kind of worried about what I'm going to tell them tonight."_

"_The truth."_ I blurted without thinking. _"Tell them the straight facts. Do it matter-of-factly, and let them interpret the information the way they want it to. If you tell it to them straight, they'll know you have no intentions of hiding things from them."_

"_Say, bud. Not a bad idea."_ He wrote it down.

"_So, first tell me. What is your plan?"_ I flicked my ear innocently. _"Do it out loud, for practice."_

"Okay. So, we lost ninety-nine ships and by extension, thirteen hundred men. The rest swam back to shore or were on the ship that was pulled back to Berk. We destroyed all two hundred of their ships, but they'll be back soon, with a third fleet, so we need to defend the island. We have to start fortifying the island, and get it ready to hold off a fleet and a probable air attack. _At this point, I get Gobber to show everyone how the new catapult ammunition works_."

"_And how does it work? I really do need to know, so I don't get hurt by them."_

"They work similarly to the big anti-dragon guns that the Berserkers have, both in how they work and how they're also effective against ships. Anyway, the storm doors will be shut, and the catapults reinforced. No one will be allowed to leave until the inevitable final attack is either beaten or never comes. We need to be ready at any time. Our food stores are plentiful enough to get us by, especially since we're just coming out of winter. Our plan for the final attack is simple: We will wait for them, and as they bombard the island – we'll need to really batten down the hatches – the dragons will lay waste to the fleet from above."

"_Hiccup, those metal warships have separate guns for surface and air combat. If the fleet is made up of them –"_

"The fleet will definitely consist of maybe a few warships, but will be mostly longboats. Dagur, if he has any sort of tactical brain, will want to exploit the fact that we're virtually defenseless as quickly as possible, and I'm convinced that the metal ships take a lot longer to build than the longboats, purely by virtue of their size."

"_I hope it goes well for you at the meeting. Don't worry, I'll be there in case things get out of hand."_

"_Thanks, bud. Do you mind giving me a lift to the hall?"_ I looked outside. The Great Hall was maybe fifty paces away.

"_Why not? Let's take the scenic route."_ I allowed him to jump on. Then I took him for a _bit_ of a wild ride. I flew all the way up to the peak of the tallest mountain, with Hiccup managing my tail for the best climb speed possible. I took him up through the clouds that hovered near the peak, and since it was almost nightfall, you could see the stars.

"It never ceases to amaze me, bud. It's beautiful up here, isn't it?" I nodded. We flew around in the high skies for at least…twenty? Forty? I have no clue. But Hiccup eventually remembered, and goaded me into a dive from the summit, straight to the doors of the Great Hall. He shook off the forces in about as long as it took me, so around thirty seconds. We filed in quietly. Gobber was trying to stall for time.

"- 'e'll be here soon! Don't worry! The food in the back is for all o' you to eat _after_ the meeting! Speakin' o' which, here he is now! The Dragon Chief! Everyone please take yer seats for the speech!" I watched from the back as Hiccup came up to the pedestal.

"Good evening, fellow Vikings! I called this meeting here tonight to discuss the state of the war effort against the Berserkers." A lot of the Vikings cheered. Obviously his phrasing made them think good news was on the way. "Please! It's not all good news. As such, I will begin with the bad news. We've lost the battle on ground, no doubt there. Of the twenty-nine hundred men we deployed, a thousand came back. The story is frankly the same for the fleet. All our ships are sunk or in awful shape. We have around seven hundred men left from the fleet. Consequentially, we have in the vicinity of two thousand people with which to fortify the island for a sturdy defense. We –"

"Whaddaya mean, a sturdy defense?"

"Yea! I thought we were ready to win!"

"We lost three thousand men?!"

"_I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION!"_ The crowd was getting more and more agitated.

"_DO YOU HONESTLY THINK –"_ I fired a blast into the ceiling.

"Thank you, Toothless. Yes, I mean a _very_ sturdy defense. No, we aren't about to win. In fact, if this defense fails, the war is over. _Yes_, we did lose three thousand men. You will get an explanation to your questions if _YOU WILL ALL JUST LISTEN FOR MORE THAN THIRTY SECONDS!_ And _yes_, I honestly think I can lead this island, and our losses are due to the enemy's technologies, not our own mistakes. So, as I was saying, we will be battening down _all_ the hatches, from storm doors to house doors. We will reinforce the catapults, and I have developed a technology of our own to defend the island with. Gobber?" The blacksmith dragged a miniature version of the coastal defence catapults onto the stage.

"Righty-ho! This new catapult ammunition is designed to explode a certain time after the start of its flight. If I set this, for example, to 'one', the ammunition will explode one second after firing. Any questions?"

"Yes! How does this help defend the island?"

"I got this," Hiccup cut in before Gobber could say a word. "The Berserkers have flying machines. When these explode in midair, they cause bits of metal to fly in all directions. Toothless can tell you how vicious these shells and flying machines can be. Well, he can't tell you, but he can show you. These also explode on impact, so if it's fired at a ship, it will explode when it hits the ship. Clear?" Many heads nodded.

"Good. So, the plan is that we will fortify the island so it can take a heavy beating, so they'll keep firing at us and not at the dragons that will obliterate their fleet. Simple as that."

"What if it's not enough?"

"Then Berk will be destroyed." This caught a lot of gasps from the audience. "We begin fortification tonight, starting with the plating of everything with metal. I promise you all, we'll hold. No matter what the cost becomes." Everyone started filing out grimly, but in each of them I could see a glimmer of hope. _Just maybe_, they might have been thinking, _we can actually do this._

_A/N: You sank my battleship *wink*. As usual, please R&amp;R!_


	14. Chapter 11, Last Stand

_**Toothless POV**_

As Hiccup had ordered, we began the fortifications that night. We dragons had the "Miscellaneous" tasks, which included tending the smithy fire, finding iron ore, uprooting trees to help make the wooden palisade, gathering explosive powder for the catapult ammunition – basically anything that a human had no time for. By the time we were done, Berk was surrounded by five-meter thick walls of wood and stone – with iron plating over the outside facing. The defenses of the physical island also extended to barricading the beaches, so the Berserkers would have trouble establishing a beachhead. We only had time to erect these defenses because of very stormy weather out to sea that prevented safe passage of ships. It took us three weeks of solid shift-work. In the entire three weeks, I got around four hours of sleep. When I actually _did _get to sleep, Hiccup told me later that I slept a good two days solid. Funnily enough, the morning I woke up led to the evening of the attack…

_"SAR! THEY'RE COMIN' FOR THE ISLAND! TWO LEAGUES OUT! THEY'RE GETTIN' INTO FIRING POSITION!"_ Commodore Sven barked from the watchtower.

"Understood, Commodore. Good thing everyone is already underground." Just then, I heard the piercing whistle of a shell flying towards us. It flew straight into the iron-plated wall. Gobber had given this iron his specialty hardness ('To the point of a Viking's head!' he had once said), to the point that the shell bounced off, and landed on the ground. Soon, the metallic _TING!_ of the shells bouncing off became a steady and frequent rhythm, and all of the dragons took that as their cue to strike. Hiccup had locked my tailfin long since, and I led the attack.

We all had specific roles to play. The Monstrous Nightmares would spread out, ignite, and land on the wooden parts of the ships, setting it on fire passively as they scorched it at the same time. The Deadly Nadders would fight the aircraft, since they had far more spines than we all had shots. The Zipplebacks would lay swaths of gas that the Gronckles would ignite. And _I_, with the Thunderdrums, would disrupt the enemy every time they tried _anything_.

I saw another metal ship, and, remembering what I did to take it out last time, I dove on it, collecting the gas in my throat for nearly a full minute in my slow, controlled dive. When I let it fly, the recoil of the firing action made me lose control for a few seconds. The warship was hit dead underneath the tower in the middle, and the blast - I had deemed the target too big for a bolt that doesn't explode to do any real damage – made it through the armor, detonating what must have been an ammunition rack. The warship was ripped in half, and sank within the next four minutes or so. I tried to take out the biggest targets, destroying another two warships in the same manner. Then I reflected on something that I had first done in the cove, around the time I met Hiccup.

I had fired a steady stream of fire, not a regular blast. It was weaker in terms of pure destructive power, but more effective for setting things on fire.

So, I spewed a stream of fire at a fifteen-ship-long line abreast, setting all of them on fire. _Well, that was easy._ I saw a Thunderdrum attack a fourth warship, and his sonic blast was strong enough that the warship flipped over. The Monstrous Nightmares wreaked havoc on the wooden warships.

Everything was going to plan until the all-too-familiar drone of aircraft started to make itself heard. I had already expended the last of my shots on a few more ships, so I peeled away from the ships and hawked over the sea closer to Berk. But the drone kept getting louder. _Are they coming after me?_ I wondered. Then I saw four aircraft fly right past me and head for Berk.

These aircraft were unlike anything we'd seen up until that point, with two propellors, only one pair of wings and what seemed to be an all-metal structure. They were also _far _faster than the older (I'm assuming) aircraft. Too fast for a Deadly Nadder – but not for me. I tore off after them. But as I got close, guns on the back of the aircraft blazed into action, and I scrambled out of the way to avoid getting shot up. I judged that they surely couldn't defend themselves if I came up underneath. I got to within slashing distance, and clawed the left wing as hard as I could. I was surprised to suddenly get a mouthful of fuel. I spat as much out as I could, and used a tiny flame – it was all I could muster – to consume the rest.

Being sure to stay out of the way of the fuel spilling, I raked my claws across the wing, destroying the underside and significantly reducing its lift. As a result of the lowered lift and increased drag, the aircraft veered off to the left, its tail clubbing me as it started to fall from the sky. I scrambled to keep up, but the aircraft were now aware of me and were turning to line up their rear guns towards me. Then they caught me in a crossfire. I danced around the sky, trying to avoid the veritable hail of bullets. A few caught my wings and punctured them here and there, but it wasn't severe damage, and my fire had returned. I blasted one in the wing where I knew there was fuel, and it exploded in midair. The last one started to dive. At first I had no clue what it was doing, and I followed it down. Then small canisters fell from the bottom, and I saw explosions light up where the canisters hit. This aircraft seemed to be piloted with either some extreme skills or by a total novice, because his flight pattern was very erratic – he wasn't flying coordinated, and was side slipping all over the skies. Either way, it was going to be nearly impossible to hit. I fired my last shot…

And to my eternal shame, I missed. Until, that is, he side slipped right back into the blast. Suddenly missing a fair portion of his left fuselage, he turned back toward the anti-dragon support of the fleet, but the drag slowed it dramatically as well. I slammed into the trailing edge of the wing hard enough that my vision became hazy, like there was a thick fog. I instinctively sank my claws into the skin of the aircraft to recover. When my vision _did_ clear, the pilot was aiming something right at me. I braked hard with my wings, hoping to tear off the wing, but this metal was too strong. I did throw off his aim, however, and a bullet sank into the wing rather than my head. I let go, and the aircraft fell in a flat spin, one of its engines blazing.

Meanwhile, the fleet was racing towards Berk, closing the distance to around a quarter of a league before opening fire once more. It was at this moment that I realized that even the wooden ships had those cannons. But our actual island defenses swung into action – literally. The catapults' shots exploded when they hit the longboats, destroying them, and 'only' took forty seconds to reload. The anti-dragon guns opened fire (finally, they noticed us). I danced around two explosions, not wanting to take any more damage. A Gronckle, who must not have noticed the start of the explosions, flew right through one, and fell to the ground. My fire finally re-charged, and I dove on the longboats with the most anti-dragon guns. When I let loose my first blast, it detonated more ammunition, and heavy debris, such as the gun barrels, damaged all of the surrounding vessels. I kept on dive-bombing, and ran out of shots…again. I started to ascend upwards, and heard a _CRACK!_, and not a moment later, pain exploded from my gut. Bleeding was instant and profuse. I glanced downwards, and watched a Berserker lower his weapon. I leveled off as soon as I could, and made for the island. An explosion tore my left wing. I didn't dare flap.

A few minutes later, I crash-landed – _hard –_ in the middle of the village square. I had aimed for the Great Hall; I just didn't have the altitude or the speed for it. Hiccup, who must've been watching, burst out of the doors. I had never seen Hiccup move quite so fast. Or maybe I was seeing things. He slid the last ten meters as he tried to stop.

"Oh gods, bud. What happened to you?" He didn't wait for a reply, instead applying pressure to my gut with all of his not-so-considerable might. Through my dim vision, I saw Sven come up beside Hiccup. "Sven! Put some pressure on that wound! I'm getting Gothi."

"Dear Odin…Hoo did ya get yerself inta this mess? I never saw this kind of damage done to anything. Definitely not a stab wound, it's too deep an' there would be even more bleedin' if t'was." Too bad I could only tell Hiccup… Then Gothi showed up.

"Come on, make a space!" Hiccup yelled at the slowly gathering crowd. They parted to allow Gothi to hobble through. Sven shuffled over to allow her to come up and examine my wound. I could barely hear Sven telling Gothi what he knew. I had to tell Hiccup what it was. Otherwise, other dragons or even humans could get shot.

"_Hiccup…"_ He bolted upright. _"Shot…Berserker…handheld gun."_ The effort to even think that cohesively was enough to drain me completely, and I allowed my body to go limp, at least until Gothi had fixed me. I eventually drifted into unconsciousness, letting my eyelids rest.

* * *

I came to probably a few hours later. I was in the Great Hall, along with other dragons with similar wounds. Among them were the Gronckle shot down earlier, and a Zippleback who had unspeakable injuries.

"Toothless." If I had any energy, I probably would've jumped out of my scales. I warbled an acknowledgement. "Gothi says you'll scrape by. She says you should try to conserve your energy for a day or so, to let your body make up for all the blood you lost. And you lost a _lot_ of blood. You seem to share with me a remarkable talent to bounce back from massive injuries."

"_Is the fight still going?"_

"Yes. Their fleet is slowly getting smaller. It's down to a hundred ships. Problem is, they're sending in more reinforcements constantly, and it's picking up to the point that in the time it takes for one ship to actually sink, so about half an hour, another ship comes up to join the fight. So it's at a hundred, but it's staying at a hundred."

* * *

_**3**__**rd**__** person POV**_

The fleet was slowly withdrawing, and they were still whittling down the number of combat-worthy dragons. Dagur was once again in an aircraft far from the battlefield, and was getting angrier with every ship they lost. He waved to his radio operator. "Tell Warship Alpha he may advance."

"_YES, SIR! _Warship Alpha, proceed for Berk at flank speed._"_ A voice crackled over the radio.

"Roger, making best speed for Berk. Out."

"Sir, it'll take a few days for them to get here."

"Fine, fine! Just get them here!"

* * *

_**Toothless POV**_

The fight seemed to be lulling. The next day, they pulled away from Berk, presumably to repair and re-arm. My body had mostly regenerated the blood lost, and I made sure Hiccup knew. I went outside, and watched Astrid taking care of Stormfly. Somehow, they had both managed to get through the war so far without so much as a scratch. My wing was also in surprisingly good condition, all things considered. Gothi had cleared me for flight on the condition that I didn't pull any stunt-like maneuvers.

"Hey, Toothless!" Astrid called over. I bounded over, licking her from toe to head, as I often did with Hiccup. "_ACKTHPBH! STOP IT!"_ She wiped my spit off of her. _Well, I guess I can see why she doesn't like it, but still…_She tossed me a fish. I accidentally swallowed it whole. My eyes bugged, and I coughed hard enough I accidentally blasted the ground. A slightly charred fish was all that was there when Stormfly and I beat away the smoke.

"_Sorry about that, Stormfly."_ I looked sheepishly at the ground.

"_Don't worry about it. I mean, Astrid may have a reaction, but I don't really care."_ I snapped up the fish. I still don't understand why humans cook their food. They make it so dry…

I looked out to the horizon, as I often did. There was a massive grey _thing _fairly close to the island. I tapped Stormfly, and pointed with my wing. Then I raced off to find Hiccup.

He was in the chief's house. _"HICCUP!"_ My Covenant voice probably hit Hiccup's mind like a gale-force wind, but I had no time.

"Aagh-ow. _What?" _He held his head.

"_There's a giant ship out there, as big as…oh gods. As big as the island."_

"_Surely you're exaggerating."_

"_No. Come on and see!"_ He leapt onto my back, and I took him to the shore. Sure enough, it was a league away, but it was close to the size of Berk.

"Oh. My. Gods. _SOUND THE ALARM!"_ The foghorn blew, and everyone started for cover. Just then, the main battery of guns on the ship fired. Hiccup put my tail in position, and we took off as hard as possible. The dragons had all seen it, and were moving to engage it. A separate battery of anti-dragon guns put up a thick screen of cover. I fired at the sound of the blasting anti-dragon guns, and hit a few of them, making a hole that I promptly exploited. When I was near the ship, I saw the hull was riding low in the water with weight. I blasted the hull with a blast I had been collecting since I fired the first shot. When I let it loose, the explosion blew a hole in the side hull of the ship. I dove in, and saw an expansive room, full of munitions. I fired at the far end of the room and dove outside as the ammunition started to burn. When it finally detonated, the ship had a gaping hole where that magazine used to be, and started to take on water. Suddenly, as the ship started to list, I heard a scream.

_Astrid's _scream. I flew up and over the anti-dragon cover and saw Stormfly get hit – possibly for the second time – by a weapon of some sort. They fell to the island, crashing through a house that promptly collapsed on top of them. I alighted beside the ruins, let Hiccup off and started to dig. We finally unearthed Astrid, and she helped us dig Stormfly out.

"_Thank heavens you're here!" _Stormfly told me. _"That house would have crushed me. As it is, I think my leg is –"_ _CRACK! _A shot rang through the air.

_A/N: Ooh, cliffhanger! ;) As usual, all feedback is greatly appreciated! Also, flying coordinated means in aviation language that you're facing the same direction you're going. Side-slipping means you aren't._


	15. Chapter 12, The Blame Game

_A/N: WARNING! *May* contain character death._

_**Toothless POV**_

A Berserker, who I hadn't seen and had somehow gotten onto the island, lowered his weapon. Instinctively, I blasted him. I glanced back down at Stormfly.

"_Stormfly?" _No answer. _"STORMFLY!"_ Nothing. My mind was racing. _What could possibly have happened? Why isn't she moving? Why –?_ _No. "STORMFLY!" NO._ I looked over to Hiccup. He took his ear off the Nadder's chest. Astrid was crying into Hiccup's shoulder. He had tears in his eyes. He looked straight into my eyes, and shook his head. I retched in shock. Then I lowered my head, in respect for the deceased Tracker dragon. Astrid _howled._ I'll admit to crying a lot myself. In dragon tradition, it's customary to fire one shot's worth of fire into the air upon the death of a dragon, if you are present when they pass on. The blast flew high in the sky, past the clouds. If it ever exploded, I never saw it.

* * *

Meanwhile, the ship was still listing. It was tilted at nearly fifty degrees, and was rolling over. A Nightmare, out of compassion, melted a hole through the bottom of the stern, to allow the humans to escape. The reset of the longboats, seemingly oblivious to the sinking of the battleship, continued to bombard the island's walls. At least, they didn't know until a fire somewhere aboard the ship found its way to another magazine, and the mighty battleship was torn in two like a sheet of paper. The Berserkers, finally noticing the loss of their flagship, began to pull back. They had actually eventually breached the walls in one place, but they would never get a chance to exploit it. The Berserkers were withdrawing.

* * *

We – or rather, _I – _brought Stormfly's body back to the stables, where she was laid to rest until funeral arrangements could be made. When we finally got home, Astrid was likely to run out of tears at the rate that she was crying. Honestly, so was I. Hiccup sat her down on the bed. He motioned for me to leave for a few minutes. I obliged quietly and nosed the door shut behind me. But I still listened in on what they were saying.

"Astrid, I'm so sorry."

"Sorry? What exactly are you sorry about? That Stormfly's dead, –" She choked. "Or that Toothless let her die?" _Ouch_. She might as well have stabbed me with a rusty dagger. It would've hurt less. Not to mention, it would have been less cruel. I knew she was dealing with the loss of her best friend, but going after _me_ for not seeing that Berserker? My pain was quickly replaced by anger. I was tempted, even in my own grief, to go in there and give her a very angry piece of my mind, but Hiccup seemed just as able as I to convey that message.

"What are you talking about?! Toothless has a responsibility as Alpha of his nest – Berk – to protect it. How can you possibly accuse _him_ as being at fault for Stormfly's death instead of protecting Berk?"

"Because the Berserker was _right there._ He should've seen the guy."

"That logic doesn't hold up, Astrid, and you know it. Stormfly was Toothless' friend too, Astrid. You can't just accuse people of being at fault like that because you lost someone."

"Stormfly and I shared the same relationship as you and Toothless do. I lost a sister today. It's obvious the blame should be on whoever let them die." It was bad enough, losing my best friend outside of Hiccup. Now in Astrid's mind, I was a murderer. I couldn't help it. I trundled away, and sprinted to the cove, sobbing as I ran. When I got there, I curled up in the darkest corner, and wailed in grief and guilt. I couldn't help thinking that it would have been better if Hiccup had killed me in the woods, five years ago.

* * *

_**Hiccup POV**_

I just could not believe what I was hearing from Astrid. She was basically calling my best friend a murderer. I heard a faint wail in the wind, but I thought it must've been the wind.

"Astrid, you need to see Gothi," I decided. "I don't want you losing your mind to grief. Toothless isn't the murderer that you're painting him as."

"_HOW CAN YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SAY THAT?! HE KILLED YOUR FATHER!"_ She exploded at me. Referring to _that particular event_ made me _very_ angry.

"Astrid, how can _you_ say that? Were _you_ there to see what happened? Drago Bludvist killed my father, not Toothless. It's like killing someone with a sword. Do you blame the sword?" My words came out with a hint of my barely-controlled anger. Her eyes fell.

"No." She sheepishly looked down. "I blame whoever swung the sword."

"Toothless was the sword that day. Drago swung it. And Toothless had nothing to do with Stormfly's death. The sword was swung by a very, very dead Berserker. I know you feel awful because you lost her, but it wasn't his fault." Was Astrid beginning to see sense?

"I…I'm sorry, Hiccup. It's just…I can't get to grips with the fact I've lost her, and I needed to outlet it on someone." I suddenly felt very bad for her.

"That someone shouldn't have had to have been Toothless."

"I know...I'm sorry."

"Come here, Astrid." We embraced for a long time. "Toothless? You can come in now." Nothing. "Toothless?" Nothing. Then I heard the wail in the wind again. This time, as I listened to it, it sounded distinctly similar to a Night Fury's cry. I got up. "I need to go find Toothless."

"Wait, _what?_"

"I think he overheard our conversation; at least, part of it. But I do have a good idea where to find him."

"I'll come with. There are a few apologies I have to make." I set out for the cove with Astrid in tow.

* * *

_**Toothless POV**_

"_TOOTHLESS!"_ Hiccup. I shrank further into the cover of the shade. He came out of the opening in the cliff, and into the cove. He saw me instantly. I glanced at my reflection in the pond. My eyes were puffy, and slightly yellow from the mix of green irises and bloodshot eyes from crying. I slinked out of the corner I was sitting in. He came up to me. He walked with such determination that I was wondering if he was here to kill me. If he was, I was in no state to resist. According to Astrid, I deserved it. Then he hugged my neck. "Oh bud, I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to hear that."

"_I expected you to come and try to kill me. If you were, I wouldn't have resisted."_ My tears fell on his back.

"I would never hurt you, bud. _Never._ There's someone here, bud. Someone who owes you an apology." Astrid stepped out of the opening, seeming very guilty. I flinched. She walked up to me. She put her hand on my head.

"I'm sorry, Toothless. I was a bit crazy with grief, and…" She trailed off. _A bit!_ I thought. And with that, I felt Hiccup climb onto my back and invite Astrid to come on. We took off.

When we got home, Valka was there. She had finished cooking dinner, which vaguely resembled healing paste. The smell was…well…I don't want to insult her cooking, so I'll stop describing the food. The two recently-weds picked at it half-heartedly.

"I was very sorry to hear about Stormfly." She had a solemn look on her face. I blew a small fireball into the pit.

"Well, it happened. There's not much we can do about it now." Valka cocked her head.

"Did something happen? Ah, other than...well, you know?" Hiccup glanced at me.

"A little argument." He gave Valka his best 'not now' face.

"I see. I should start the preparations for her funeral." Hiccup nodded. Astrid stood to follow. The two ladies of the house walked off. I went to sleep without so much as touching the basket of fish in front of me.

* * *

The next morning, we went down to the beach. A large ship was sitting on the beach. There was a strong wind to take it away from the island. Astrid stood ready with her bow. I prepared a very heavy blast with as little explosive power as possible. We pushed it off, and it sailed out to around a half a kilometer before she fired her flaming arrow. The rest of us followed suit, with my heavy blast following the same ballistic arc as the arrows. We watched it burn away in the Berkian bay. I looked over to Hiccup, whose eyes were tightly shut. A tear fell from his left eye. Eventually, he opened them. In unblemished rage, he looked out to the ship.

"Dagur is going to pay."

_A/N: Soooo... Astid went a bit OOC with grief. Well, that's what grief will do. I warned you there would be character death. As usual, feedback is greatly appreciated!_


	16. Chapter 13, Reconaissance

_A/N: Happy Thanksgiving everyone! A new chapter, as my way of giving thanks to all of you who read this and give me motivation to keep writing!_

_**Toothless POV**_

After the service, we all went home. Mentally and emotionally exhausted, I managed to fall asleep, even though I had only woken up an hour ago. When I woke up, something like an hour and a half later, there was a sheet of paper on my head. I shook it off and saw Hiccup writing and drawing furiously. I cocked my head in curiosity.

_"What are you doing?"_ I asked.

"Trying to end this war." I looked over his shoulder. He'd been _busy_. There was a map of the Berserker Empire, the location of its capital, Magistrara, the location that Dagur was most likely going to be at, and plans for a reconnaissance mission to the capital. "I'm glad you're awake. I'm getting ready for some reconnaissance to Magistrara." His tone had a sharp edge despite his calm body language, and I knew he was trying not to show that he was angry.

_ "Are you alright, Hiccup?"_ I stared at him in concern.

_"I'm fine, bud. It's just…"_ He broke off. I decided not to pry. We'd all been through a lot recently. He hopped on my back, and we started off towards the island, after Hiccup promised Astrid and Valka that we'd be back before midnight. We flew slowly, at his request, so that he could continue planning as we flew. _Strange,_ I thought. _Hiccup usually enjoys flying_.

About four hours later, we arrived at the Berserker frontier village.

"_Okay, bud. I want you to turn twenty or so degrees to the left and follow the stream a league or so that way."_ I obliged, and we flew high, so that it would be harder to be seen. Eventually, I flew over a mountain chain, and a truly _massive_ city appeared before us. "Magistrara." There was a hint of awe in his voice. Never had either of us seen such a massive construction. Anywhere. Ever. Except that one Roman metropolis we came across once during our exploration trips. _That_ is a long story for another day. I heard Hiccup furiously scribbling down notes.

"Catapults…guns…ten armored guns scattered everywhere…a strange dome way down there…but no walls." Their storage area was all but empty. The fleet that they had churned out had taken all the resources they had. We would not be attacked for a while. I hovered for a few minutes with nothing but the sound of Hiccup's pencil, the odd muttering here and there, and the hum of a city. Until I heard a faint drone, getting louder by the instant. It was a sound I'd heard more than enough times over the course of this war, which had lasted for around three months now. Before I knew it, I was sprinting towards Berk. _"It's a good thing I secured my sheets."_ I nodded an agreement. The drone was still getting louder. I eventually looked back, and extremely sleek, high-speed aircraft were bee-lining for us. They had two engines each, and a very large gun under the nose. One fired, and I instinctively barrel-rolled to the left as something whizzed past my left wing, just barely missing. I made a mad dash for Berk.

Fifteen or so minutes later, I was getting tired of keeping up an all-out sprint, so I braked so hard Hiccup almost blacked out, and the aircraft whizzed past me, totally unprepared for my maneuver. I caught up to the second one in the formation. Then things started to fall out of hand. Hiccup drew his sword and plunged it into the wing of the aircraft.

"_Oh, no."_ The resultant explosion of the gas fumes knocked me out cold.

* * *

I woke up on the ground – I think – not too long later. I immediately looked around for my rider. When I didn't see him, I judged the area where he was most likely to be, probably close to our flight path, and set off in that direction. I came up not too long later to a large clearing. Some of the grass was beat down, as if someone had waded into the field.

Or had landed hard.

I followed the fallen grass to an unconscious Hiccup. Wow, that was a lucky guess. As I would have expected, he had used his wingsuit to glide to the nearest clearing. He seemed, however, to have botched the landing. There was a particularly nasty cut on his left arm, right through the armor. But he was breathing, so I knew that he was at least alive. I kept watch for the next two hours or so for anyone, anyone at all, be it a search party, a hunter, anyone that might mean either of us harm. Then he woke up.

"Owww…What happened? Explosion…flight…_TOOTHLESS!"_

"_I'm right here."_

"What happened?"

"_You gave the essential equivalent of Zippleback gas a spark in midair."_

"I know that. I mean, what happened after?"

"_The explosion knocked me out. I woke up some time later and immediately set off to find you. I guessed you would be along our flight path. I guessed right. Are you alright?"_

"I should be mostly ok. I think we should head home."

"_Yes, we should. I think my tailfin is still workable…" _I glanced at my shreddedartificial tail. _"Good thing you brought extra fabric…"_ He got up slowly and tested for damage. Nothing seemed particularly hurt, except what he judged to be a bruised rib. I flew carefully home, making sure not to do any crazy stunts. But I still somehow managed to make the fabric fall off, and I crash-landed outside the Chief's house. It was then two in the morning, and Astrid and Valka both came out to yell at us for being late. I never knew Valka could be quite so loud.

"_HICCUP! WHY DO YOU KEEP –"_ Astrid began.

"– _**MAKING ME WORRIED ABOUT YOU BY PROMISING YOU'LL BE HOME AT A CERTAIN TIME AND SHOWING UP TWO HOURS LATE?!**__"_ Valka finished. If I could talk, my answer would have been something like _aagh-owwwww._ My ears were almost literally burning with pain. Valka seemed to be the first to acknowledge that I was there, and she of all people knew that dragons have sensitive hearing, so she nodded an apology to me. Neither of them stayed angry very long, though. Both saw Hiccup was in very real pain. I had probably caused further damage to what was already hurt in my…less-than-graceful landing.

About an hour later, Gothi was done, and we were all allowed back inside. Hiccup was again planning with his new information, though with a bandage around his chest and arm.

"_When do you stop planning?"_ I asked.

"When Dagur's paid for what he's done."

"_Ok. You lied to me when you said you were ok. Why? I know you want revenge for what happened to Stormfly. I also know you well enough to know that you're being consumed by your vengeful thoughts. I want vengeance too, but don't let it dictate what you do."_ It probably wasn't the best thing to say, but I couldn't let it slip by.

"I admit it. You got me. I am planning to kill Dagur. Now, are you going to stop me?" I recoiled in surprise. I had never heard anything like that from him.

"_Who are you, and what have you done to Hiccup?"_ Something was definitely wrong. Hiccup was not of a vengeful nature. Even when either I or the Bewilderbeast, whichever way you look at it, killed Stoick, he didn't go out for vengeance. So why was he now?

"I am still Hiccup, bud. I just can't let Dagur get away, not just with killing Stormfly, but with this _WHOLE GODSDAMNED WAR! _Dagur is the reason Berk's population is half what it was two months ago!" I could understand exactly what Hiccup was thinking, but…I felt he was going about this the wrong way. However, his glare reflected his father's stubbornness, and I gave up. "I'll take that as 'no'. It's not just for vengeance, bud. It's also that the next person to die might be someone else we know, or you. Or me, or Astrid…You get the idea."

"_I get the idea, but you humans always say that two wrongs don't make a right. You're right; they don't."_ Hiccup was losing his grip on reality. And there was nothing I could do about it. Resignedly, I curled up to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, I was surprised to discover that Hiccup didn't actually pull another redeye. He had fallen asleep over his papers. I nudged him awake.

"Jeez, bud. Can't I get a little rest around here?" He tossed me a fish from a bucket he always kept near his desk, which I caught in midair. He smiled and gathered his papers.

"_What are you doing?"_

"You know those big armored guns Dagur has? Well, I'm trying to make a weapon that can destroy them."

"_How do you plan to do that?"_ I wondered.

"First, I'm giving you more quartz. Then I'm going to make a gun of my own." I realized he was talking about two separate things – his design and my fire – after a moment's contemplation. I decided to leave him to his own devices for a while. I went and found Gobber. He always had something interesting going on…

But he seemed very busy. He was pounding something into shape that looked vaguely cylindrical. I moved on so as to not interrupt him.

Well, anyway, I found Astrid not too long later. She was hurling axes at trees, as she often did when she had to blow off steam. I suddenly ducked as she accidentally hurled it at me.

"_WHOOPS! _Sorry, Toothless." I gave her a 'nice to see you too' look. "I'm just trying to blow off some steam against Dagur." _What does it take to get away from Dagur?_ I wondered. She sat up against a log.

"Right now, as much as I have a passion for fighting, I just want this war to be over." I nodded. "You can tell I'm upset when I'm talking to _you_." _What's that supposed to mean?!_ "I mean," she added quickly, "I usually talk to someone who can talk back to me." Then, Hiccup came up behind me and took Astrid aside.

"Astrid! I have a plan to finally end this war, once and for all. But you need to be with the ground forces."

"Why?"

"You can't fly with the dragons. Don't worry; we'll clear the way for you. We're attacking Magistrara."

"_WHAT?!"_

"Yep. We move out a week tonight. That should give us enough time to arm everyone." Of course, I would only later that week find out what he was talking about…

* * *

"_ARE YOU SURE THIS IS GOING TO WORK?"_ Snotlout yelled. Hookfang had a massive gun strapped to his belly.

"_ABSOLUTELY SURE! JUST PULL THE TRIGGER AT THE RIGHT TIME!"_ Hiccup replied. Hookfang promptly dived on the dummy target, which was a metal plate with some wood behind it. I watched as they lined up, steadied themselves, and…

A sound like a thunderclap rang through the air, there was a brilliant flash of light, and the wood exploded. There was a large hole in the metal plate.

"I'd say that was a success. _GOOD JOB, LOUT!"_ The weapon seemed to be ready. I had asked Hiccup how it worked, and he replied with a ridiculous string of arithmetic and drawings and explanations of force…He lost me at the part where he started talking about the forms of energy, referring to a book about some guy called Newton. _Where did Trader Johann go to _get_ all this stuff?_ The next night, we would be attacking the Berserker capital. I tried to stop my head from pounding with confusion so I didn't get a headache. I failed, and got a pitiful amount of sleep that night for my troubles.

* * *

Everyone knew what to do. We all deployed in our various formations. The ground forces would be airlifted to a clearing near the capital. We would then synchronize our attack.

"_So, you're telling me I have to lug an anti-armor gun for four hours to a clearing?" _I asked Hiccup.

"Yes." I grumbled a complaint, and allowed them to strap one of the forty guns to me. Those dragons – the other sixty – would carry as many soldiers as they could. In the case of the two Typhoomerangs, that was around nine hundred. Each. We only needed to fly to Magistrara once to get everyone there. It was time for the counterattack.


	17. Chapter 14, Anything you can do

_**3**__**rd**__** Person POV**_

"Is Ragnarok ready?" Dagur asked Commodore Narca, the Commodore of Special Weapons Development.

"Yes, sir! We can prepare for launch at any time."

"Good. Prepare the automated launch sequence. We need everyone on the surface for the defense of Magistrara."

"Yes, sir!" He pressed an important-looking button, and followed Dagur up the stairs leading to the surface.

* * *

_**Toothless POV**_

The ten Berserker armored guns rolled out of the gate. Hiccup signalled to me not to bolt any of them. He also signaled the ground and dragon-mounted guns to target the lead vehicle. Three earth-shattering booms later, the armored gun's turret flew high in the air. As they reloaded, the next five guns exploded the second armored gun. They rinsed and repeated until all the guns were destroyed. Then Hiccup gave the signal for the dragons to attack, and we did. The anti-dragon guns set up all over the city lit up the sky ahead, but the only effect they had was to show us where they were.

I peeled away from the formation to take care of a close-knit grouping of ten guns. One shot was enough. The shards of metal from the box in the centre annihilated the crew of the guns as I overflew the grouping. I saw an aircraft come up behind me, and I started flying erratically, trying to make it hard for the pilot to aim. Then I dove into the streets, flying sideways. The aircraft's wing clipped a building, and it crashed to the ground, exploding at the same time. Hiccup was still directing the anti-armor guns, which were now firing what he called fragmentation rounds, which exploded as soon as they hit anything. They wreaked havoc on the wooden city. I saw two aircraft coming at me, one directly behind, one directly in front. I waited until the last moment, dodging fire like a madman, to barrel-roll out of the way, and the aircraft collided. I promptly lined up the ammunition storage warehouse – at least, I think it was ammunition – and my shot leveled four blocks of houses. I quickly did an Immelmann and destroyed another group of anti-dragon guns.

Meanwhile, the Nightmares landed in the streets, and set themselves on fire, destroying anything in sight. The Nadders attacked with deadly fury in vengeance of Stormfly. The Zipplebacks engulfed the city in green gas, which they finally lighted, leveling almost the entire town. The ground forces were marching in, virtually unopposed. Berserkers desperately tried to resist, but were slaughtered by the Berkian soldiers. When the Berkian ground forces reached the city square, the Berserker footsoldiers in that part of town surrendered.

In my joy of seeing the war won so easily after all this suffering, I flew right into a burst of anti-dragon gunfire. It ripped both of my wings to shreds, and left small cuts all over my body. I fell from the sky like a rock. I landed in the heart of a small pocket of Berserker resistance. They converged on me. Ignoring the growing pain from my wings, I scrambled to my feet and looked around for anything that could help. When I saw nothing, I went to work trying to break out.

I tried to incapacitate, not kill, but that would prove difficult. I clawed my way towards the mass of Berkian troops. At their head was Hiccup and Astrid. Their eyes widened when they saw me surrounded and my wings shredded, and they led the charge. Since none of the Berserkers were paying any attention to the Berkian soldiers, the charge was brutal.

Suddenly, I was surrounded by Berkians, rather than Berserkers. I finally started to use my fire against the Berserkers. My first shot trapped them by collapsing a building behind them. My second, a bolt, destroyed an armored gun behind the troops. We went to work annihilating the group of Berserkers, when I spotted Dagur trying to get away. I grabbed Hiccup by the collar and tossed him onto my saddle, a trick that I'd gotten used to over the years, as I ran.

We chased Dagur all over the city. Though the battle was won, it wasn't over. Dagur took cover behind another armored gun. My shot sailed into his flank, setting it on fire. I ran past the burning vehicle. After around five seconds or so, the gun exploded, and the turret learned to fly. It landed directly behind me, almost nabbing my tail. I continued to chase the Berserker chief. I had to stop many times, however, to help Berkian soldiers. I paused to deal with another armored gun threatening Snotlout's group, detonating it outright before moving on. I also had to fight my way through a Berserker column that had come to defend Dagur. It didn't take very long. I slashed and cut with fury worthy of my species. One managed to get a glancing blow off my flank, but it hardly did anything. Hiccup swung his flaming sword left and right to cut a path through the column. Eventually we got through, and I looked around for Dagur. Then I heard him yell and instinctively rolled to the left. Just in the nick of time. Dagur's sword cleaved into the dirt road. Hiccup jumped off to engage.

Their blades clanged in a shower of sparks. I slowly started to work my way around Dagur, trying to get a clear shot. Then I saw what Dagur was doing with his other hand. He grabbed a small weapon. I knew immediately what I had to do. Dagur flipped Hiccup's sword out of his hand and pushed him back. As I started to sprint, he leveled the weapon at Hiccup's chest. As I jumped in between, he pulled the trigger, there were 2 blinding flashes of light, and an equally blinding explosion of pain in my gut. I landed on my feet, whipped around, and made sure the shot did not pass through me into him. Dagur looked at me in utter shock, maybe at what I'd done, or maybe that I was still on my feet. In any case, he backed away. Hiccup ran to me.

"Oh my gods, bud, are you okay? How do you feel?" He asked me.

"_Like I've been shot."_ If there was anything, anything at all, that I'd learned from Hiccup…

"No…really? I'd have never guessed." In spite of myself, I chuckled. He examined it, grabbing a cloth. He put it up against my new wound, and looked at the blood. I could tell he was trying not to throw up. "I think you'll be fine, but we should get to Gothi when we get a chance." I nodded. Then, painfully, on my part, we started to close the distance with Dagur. I collapsed a building behind him with another shot. He was trapped. He looked around for any way out. He didn't find one.

"Nowhere to run, Dagur." Hiccup picked up Inferno and ignited it. He closed the distance to Dagur.

* * *

_A/N: So, I've been away a while. I've been real busy, and haven't had the time for this lately. But that's eased up, and I've got some new stuff for those of you who read this! I plan on doing a catalogue of all the military vehicles and equipment used in this story when it's done. _

_By the way, Dagur only fired one shot because he only had a flintlock pistol. Also explains the two flashes but only the one shot: Flintlock pistols have a mechanism on the outside that ignites a small amount of gunpowder that leads to the propellant charge of gunpowder in the barrel. None of that Colt semiautomatic business. Hope you enjoyed my little mechanics lesson!_

_As usual, please enjoy. And please do tell me what you think in the reviews section!_


	18. Chapter 15, Things we regret

_A/N: Well, two more reviews! One of them, I don't know how to interpret, and the other, Mikowmer, I appreciate your honesty. I hope it gets better to you in the next chapters. Also, some OOC. But not really, considering the effects emotions have on people. I never mentioned just how angry Hiccup really was…_

* * *

_**Toothless POV**_

Dagur fumbled with the mechanism in his hands, but Hiccup knocked it out of his hand. He had an emotion on his face that I never thought I'd see; pure, unadulterated hatred. He cornered Dagur against a building's façade, leveling Inferno at Dagur's throat.

"Well, Dagur. How the tables have turned." If it didn't hurt to do so, I would have face-winged. _When did he get so cliché?_

"At the start of this war, you leveled your sword at my throat. To my regret, I let you escape that day." I looked at Hiccup, stunned. Where had the peaceful, friendly man that I knew gone?

"You fought like a body without a brain at the start of this war, but you eventually learnt your lesson. You started developing technology to chase the dragons from the skies, and to chase us from the ground. And it almost worked. But it just wasn't enough." _Wait a minute…Is Hiccup monologuing?_ Dagur tried to swipe at Hiccup with his last dagger, but missed. I blasted it out of his hand, for good measure.

"You killed thousands of Vikings, and hundreds of dragons! Among them, Stormfly."

"Not me," Dagur protested. "My soldiers maybe, but I never gave them specific orders on who to –"

"_SHUT UP!_ Did I say you could speak?" I was wordless. I cocked my head, trying to see if it really was Hiccup, or a fake. _No, it really is him._

"_Hiccup, snap out of it! I know this isn't you."_

"Stay out of it, bud," he warned me, aloud. Dagur narrowed his eyes quizzically.

"_No, I will not stay out of it. You are Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, Dragon Master, not an insane killer!"_

"And how do you know who I am?" Dagur started to crack up. I could imagine him thinking, _Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, insane?!_ The sword came closer, and he stopped laughing.

"_Because I saw it in your eyes, Hiccup. You can tell a lot by looking into someone's eyes."_ His sword was trembling, inches from a silent Dagur's throat.

"_Yeah, well, I guess people change, huh?"_ _Wow. He actually remembered he didn't have to speak aloud._

"_Yes, most people change. But you aren't most people. You're not a killer, that much I know."_

"_And how, pray tell, do you know that?"_ I had to act fast. His sword was slowly moving towards Dagur's throat. It was incredible, the amount of rage he was feeling. I could almost touch it.

"_Five years, four months and six days ago, I was flying around an island, looking for targets. I eventually selected the catapult on the western bank. As I pulled out of my dive, a little boy shot me out of the sky. The same evening, the same boy came looking for me. When he found me, ensnared and defenseless, he tried his best to kill me. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead, the knife he held, which should have been stained with my blood, cut my ropes. That boy, I grew to love. That boy is standing in front of me right now. And yet, I wonder: Where did he go?"_ Tense moments passed before Hiccup's sword slowly drooped. Instead of thrusting his sword at Dagur, he thrusted his hand out to help him up. Warily, Dagur took Hiccup's hand. He seemed overwhelmed by Hiccup's kindness and forgiveness.

"Will you be willing to accept an unconditional surrender?" He asked.

"Yes." They shook hands. Hiccup came over to me. "Thank you, bud. You kept me from doing something I'd regret for the rest of my life."

"_That's what a best friend does."_

"Yeah. Yeah, it is." Suddenly, a loud groaning noise erupted from the bowels of the island. I felt a mood shift. Dagur's shoulders sagged.

"Oh, no…" Of course, it wasn't that simple to win a war, now was it?

"What is it, Dagur?" He put his sword away.

"I…I forgot, in the heat of the moment…"

"What is it?" Hiccup was justifiably worried.

"Before the battle…I set an ultimate weapon to fire at your island. Ragnarök. Is there anyone on your island?"

"Yes, thousands! Are you saying –"

"I have to disable it!" He ran off. We chased after him through a chamber, before skidding to a halt on a metal bridge-like structure. Dagur was hunched over something, hitting buttons furiously at a station with the words _Ragnarök_ _Ballistic Missile_ written above it.

"I can't disable the sequence! I have to do it manually."

"Whoa, Dagur, what? You need to disable…" He trailed off. The roof opened up, and I saw a massive, sleek _thing_ in the center of the whatever-it-was we were in. Dagur was already running to it. He went inside the sleek object, and eventually, a large number of alarms went off. The object started to leak towards the bottom of the…hull? The main body. He burst out of the door again.

"I can't stop it like this. Thank you for sparing me from your weapon, Hiccup. Now let me do the same." Hiccup never got a chance to reply. The object suddenly emitted a leviathan roar, and started to ascend, with Dagur still inside.

"Come on, bud! We have to…" He saw my shredded wings. "So much for that idea." I fired at the base of the missile as it ascended. Suddenly, it pitched out to sea, in the direction of Berk...

* * *

_**Astrid POV**_

I heard a concussive roar from the heart of the capital. I turned around, and, seeing what it was, grabbed the nearest dragon and goaded it to follow the _thing_ into the air. Eventually, after a while of following it, I saw it was leaking some sort of substance heavily. Suddenly, the _thing_ sputtered, and started to fall out of the sky. When it landed in the sea, said part of the ocean turned white, and there was a massive _FWOOM_ sound as the whatever-it-was exploded below the surface.

* * *

_**Toothless POV**_

I couldn't believe it. It was just too impossible. Dagur had been at war with us this morning, and now, in the late afternoon, he had given his life to save us. Wordlessly, Hiccup picked up Dagur's knife.

Grimacing from the last wound Dagur had inflicted, I followed him down to the docks where he placed the dagger on a small fishing vessel. He took the spare sail, and covered the dagger with it. Gently, Hiccup pushed the fishing boat out to grabbed a bow and arrow lying against a building. Dipping the arrow's tip in oil, he lit it on a torch and fired at the ship. His shot flew true, and within minutes, the vessel was ablaze, breaking apart in the harbor.

_A/N: Well, much OOC was involved. But, as I said quite some time ago, grief does things to people. Lesser known is that so does gratitude. _

_Maybe Toothless was reading some Shakespeare, too. Where else could he have learned how to do an analogy?_

_As usual, please R&amp;R!_


	19. Chapter 16, Clouded

_**Toothless POV**_

Gothi had been quick to deal with my many wounds. When she was done, her masterful stitches covered most of my wings' surface area. We soon ran into Astrid.

"Milady." Hiccup smiled, before kissing her hand.

"Hiccup, there's something you need to know. Something took off from the island. A Nadder and I followed it." She was visibly shaken, and also soaked to the bone.

"Let me guess: After a while, it fell into the sea, after heading for some time in the direction of Berk?"

"Uh…yeah, now that you mention it, it was going for Berk. Wait; how do you know this?"

"Because I saw Dagur put himself in that rocket. Now I know my suspicions were correct."

"Wait, what suspicions?" Astrid looked puzzled.

"Dagur sacrificed himself to save us all." She was taken aback.

"Maybe you should get your head checked. You might've bumped it during the fight." I growled softly. She might be Hiccup's mate, but he's still my rider.

"No, he really did." He stepped onto the boat docked for us. "See you when we get home, Astrid." She raised her hand in farewell as the boat pushed off.

"_Why did Dagur do that?"_ I may have human-like qualities from hanging around Hiccup for five years, but I sometimes struggle to understand what humans do.

"To be totally honest, bud, I think it was so he could redeem himself before the gods. He, as chief, was at fault for a lot of horrible things during this war. I don't need to give examples." He rested his hand on my snout.

"_You humans and your gods…Why do you always make things so complicated when they're really so simple?"_

"That's human nature, bud. It's like saying that I could swim across the ocean –"

"_Uh, no. No, you can't."_

"Just bear with me. It's like –"

"_Do you want me to bear with you, or to wolf with you, or to dragon –"_ This was getting fun.

"Please! Just listen for a second. It's like saying that I could swim across the ocean, but no, I have to make it complicated. I have to use a boat." I emitted a baritone laugh that needed no translation.

"_Fair enough."_ I shook my head. Then I curled up on the deck, and tried to block out my pain as I fell asleep.

I woke up when we arrived, to see Valka stomping down to the pier. She had a nasty cut on her brow from…a sword? It was hard to tell. I braced myself for a yelling session, but Valka walked right past me and hugged her son so fiercely that she literally squeezed the breath out of his ribs. He gasped like a fish out of water.

"And I thought only Dad could do _that_." I glanced at him. "I mean _humans_, Toothless." I rolled my eyes. "See? No respect. This is just the sort of thing – _ACK!_" And he got a big lick in the face. Valka couldn't help bursting out in laughter. "Yeah, yeah, okay, very funny." He knocked his fist on the top of my skull.

"_Ow. You know that hurts."_

"It's probably my sheer Viking-ness. I can't control my own strength." I chortled.

"_What Viking-ness?"_ In retrospect, that was a little mean, but he was practically begging for me to say that. And I sprinted home before he could reply with anything but,

"_WHADDAYA MEAN, 'WHAT VIKING-NESS?!'"_

A few minutes later, a beet-red Hiccup stormed through the door, followed by Valka, whose cheeks were flushed as though she had enjoyed a good laugh. In fact, she was still giggling softly, though she was holding back, for Hiccup's sake. Eventually, he went to the Mead Hall. As soon as the door closed, Valka started laughing so hard she was crying.

"Ah, for a dragon, you have quite the sense of humor. I haven't enjoyed quite such a laugh in a long time." _I wonder where I got that from…_ Suddenly, Astrid walked in. Valka had just come out of her laughing fit. _Oh come on, it wasn't __that__ funny…_ But the tears were still there. Astrid suddenly looked concerned.

"What's wrong, Ms. Haddock?"

"Oh, nothing's wrong. And please, I'm Valka to you, all right? You're a grown woman. But that pair, Hiccup and Toothless…what a hysterical bunch. Oh, you should've seen them going at each other at the docks." And she told Astrid the entire story. She cracked a smile. Then, a moment later, she was bawling with tears of laughter as well.

Hiccup came back in not long afterwards. He shot me a murderous glare, but one that was tinged with playfulness, so I knew he wasn't really mad. He had a small journal that looked extremely old.

"_What's that?"_ I asked.

"It's the village chronicle. Every time something major happens, it goes in here." And so he wrote.

_The Berserker War._

_The Berserkers have fought with us for the past two months. We finally ended the war today, after many were lost. As of the count now,_

And he fell asleep on the paper. I couldn't blame him. Particularly since I fell asleep about six seconds later.

The next morning, we received word that the Berserkers had elected a new chief, Hamish the Peaceful. He came to sign a permanent alliance with Berk, but he insisted on one special condition, that I honestly found distasteful. He wanted the treaty signed with my blood, to, in Hamish's words, 'include the dragons in this pact.' That was rather literally a painful evening.

But Hamish kept his word. Nearly two months later, I had healed, and the Berserkers had changed their name to the Reasonable. Yes, it was Hamish's idea. Hiccup had decided to pay reparations to the Reasonable, and they were soon back on their feet. He and I eventually decided to just go flying. We flew all over the Archipelago that day, just to blow off the stress of the past few months. But no matter where we went, we could never escape the war. It had touched every island. We flew past Itchy Armpit island, and I saw part of a wrecked warship washed up on the shore. It was the entire bow section, and was intact enough that the Berserker pennant on the bow still fluttered defiantly. At Stormfly Island, once known as Nadder Island, renamed in respect for her, a wreck of a small aircraft lay in a clearing. On the rear fuselage, a Skrill roundel had not quite faded away.

"Bud, how do you cope with all this?" I looked up, and he gestured to the warship wreck.

"_Me, Toothless? I don't. I feel awful. But it's good that I do. The day killing doesn't affect me is the day I'll be scared."_

"Me too, Bud. Me too." And with that, I soared into the clouds with Hiccup, before letting myself fall to sea level and riding over the swell of air above the waves. I even caught myself a fish. I tossed half over my head to Hiccup.

"Ugh…_WHY, Toothless. WHY?!"_

"_You know the only reason I still do that is that your reaction is pure comedy gold."_

"I know…but you know that I like my fish cooked."

"_That can be arranged."_ I blew a fireball in front of us.

"Me and my big mouth…" It exploded, and we flew through, with the result that Hiccup was covered in soot from the smoke, but at least his fish was cooked.

"_There."_ He rapped me gently on the flank. He sighed audibly. Then he tried to enjoy the cod I'd caught as we took in the beautiful sight of the sun setting over the Berk skyline, complete with all of its reinforcements. At least they were done with style. Then Snotlout and Hookfang rocketed out of the clouds, and I rolled out of the way just in time to not get clobbered by Snotlout's mace.

"Oops! Sorry!" Snotlout shouted in his characteristically immature way. "Bet you can't catch me!"

"_I'll take that bet." _And I shot after Hookfang into the clouds.

_The end_

_A/N: To anyone who is interested: List of weapons used by the warring factions should be up soon. I hope you enjoyed my first fanfiction._

_Best regards,_

_Jesse93140_


	20. Weaponry and Goodbye

_**Berserkers:**_

* * *

KV-I F-34 mod. 1939 (Armored guns)

* * *

KV-VI (Super-armored gun)

* * *

152 mm howitzer M1938 (M-10) (Guns)

* * *

85-mm air-defense gun M1939 (52-K) (Anti-dragon guns)

* * *

SPAD (Fighter aircraft)

* * *

Petlyakov Pe-2 (Fast attacker aircraft)

* * *

Aggregat 12/A12 (Ragnarök)

* * *

_**Berkians:**_

* * *

Similar to Bordkanone 7,5 (AT gun mounted to Hs 129 ground attack aircraft)


End file.
